The Paradigm Alteration
by crossoctopus
Summary: In the days after "Saturnalia Miracle 2008," Penny and Sheldon's relationship begins to change. They go with it. Rated for coitus; rating applies starting in chapter 11.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Sorry if the Saturnalia Miracle (!) is too cliche a point from which to start a story-I've been working on it since before it was so many years old (and I'm new here, so I claim ignorance). The story of how Penny and Sheldon's relationship changes after *that* Christmas, told in alternating Penny/Sheldon-centric narration. I'm about 20 chapters in - they get progressively longer as more...stuff...happens. Rated for eventual coitus. Copious coitus, even.

**Thursday, December 25th 1:42pm**

It's incredibly awkward: his long limbs wrapped loosely around her, pinning her arms to her sides, his back bent down to close the gap in their heights, several inches for Jesus between their torsos. But she goes with it because how often does someone get hugged by the world's biggest germaphobe? Plus, she kind of likes him, and she's always wanted to feel like he actually likes her back. That's really why he got the personalized napkin instead of one of the other guys. It had been a brief battle – mostly between Sheldon and Leonard – but she had made her decision quickly. She knows just enough about _Star__Trek_ to know that Nimoy played Spock, and she knows that Sheldon feels some affinity for the alien guy.

She knew he would love it as she stood there spelling his name for Mr. Nimoy, but the extent to which he's freaking out is actually a little surprising.

"Leonard, Sheldon's hugging me!" She squeals the words at her friend because, really, Sheldon's hugging her, and even if it's like being hugged by a robot, it's making her happy.

Best Christmas present _ever_.

She tries to hug him back as best she can with his arms around her shoulders, and sighs, a little disappointed, when he loosens his grip as though he's about to let her go. Instead, he adjusts his hands so that her arms are freed enough to wrap around him, and he pulls her in tighter.

And all at once, it feels less like being hugged by a robot and more like being hugged by a person. She breathes in and smiles. It's like being hugged by a man, who actually smells pretty good.

She relaxes a little into this, the world's longest hug, and Sheldon relaxes a little, too, and it feels comfortable. It's nice, and she lets her head drift so it's pressing against his shoulder and breathes in deeply. As she exhales, she feels him tremble slightly and hug her tighter, making her aware of his breath on her neck. The way it whispers over her skin makes the tiny hairs on her arms stand on end. She bites back a gasp at the new sensation, but the goosebumps double when he speaks softly, his lips still a hairsbreadth from her neck.

"Please inform me of the appropriate duration for a hug." His voice is low, and she isn't sure whether his lips actually brush her neck or if it's just the nerves there tingling from his proximity. Either way, it takes her a long moment to process the question, and it ends up being Leonard who answers it.

"You passed appropriate duration at least sixty seconds ago." She can practically hear his eyes roll. Sheldon immediately lets her go, and Penny finds herself missing the warmth of him. He smiles softly at her, though; a real smile. It's genuine, with no cynicism behind it, and she can't remember the last time she saw him look this innocently happy. It's sort of weird to realize that he's actually really cute, and while it's not the first time she's had the thought, it's the first time it's crossed the '_yeah__, __but__he__'__s__crazy_' barrier in her mind since the first time he explained why he had chosen his particular seat.

"I apologize for overextending the socially acceptable duration of the hug, Penny. I am not particularly familiar with the protocol regarding hugging." He looks bashful as Leonard rolls his eyes again on the couch, and Penny can't help but smile and reassure Sheldon.

"It was a good hug, sweetie." And she grasps his wrist for a moment, waiting until his nervous gaze meets hers to let go.

"Would you like to join us for a movie? You may choose the film." He looks oddly hopeful, and Penny wonders if maybe she's reading into things.

"Will you let me pick a Christmas movie?" She grins up at him, watching his eye twitch slightly as he looks down at her. She can imagine him holding back the urge to correct her, to remind her that this is Saturnalia.

"When I informed you that you could choose a movie, I was fully aware that you would most likely choose one involving the holiday." He's nodding, but his face looks slightly pained, and she decides to take pity on him.

"My cousin sent me a DVD of a really weird sounding Christmas anime from a few years ago about, like, three hobos finding a baby," she offers, and Sheldon's eyes light up.

"_Tokyo __Godfathers_?" He seems happy, and even though she's unsure about the whole venture and the movie was really a gag gift (Jeff knows she's freaked out by anime and has sent her one every year since he moved up from Pokemon), she goes with it. Why, exactly, making Sheldon happy is worth watching a movie that she probably would have just thrown away or regifted...she's not sure. The question nags at her as she goes across the hall to get the box, and it's still there, making her wonder, when Sheldon puts it in the player.

He sits in his seat, and she sits on the middle cushion between him and Leonard. It's a little creepy for a moment, trying to figure out how to sit, because Leonard essentially told her yesterday that he's still got a thing for her, and she just got goosebumps when Sheldon's lips may or may not have brushed her neck. And now she's in between them on the couch, and she's pretty much got to pick which one she's going to lean towards when she crosses her legs. She chooses Sheldon because she doesn't want to give Leonard any more of the wrong idea than she already has, and as the taller man navigates the menu, she crosses her legs primly in his direction. Within fifteen minutes, she scoots just a little closer to him and curls her legs under her on the couch, wrapped up in the movie.

It isn't bad, actually; it's a good story, certainly not scary, and it makes her tear up a little at the end. When Sheldon sees her discretely wipe a little excess moisture from under her eye, he rests his hand against her shoulder awkwardly and pats it.

"There there." His mouth is twisted into something resembling a smile, and he keeps his hand on her arm. But just like with the hug, after a lifetime of extremely awkward seconds, it's nice. His lips relax, he figures out how to bend his elbow and his wrist, and he's patting her shoulder like a normal person. Well, if normal people patted shoulders.

Still, the normality of it is...weird. And she's not sure if it's weirder that he seems to be making a conscious effort to be nice, or that she actually kind of likes it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Friday December 26th 7:13pm**

Penny arrives at the apartment after her shift and pokes her head in the door to see what's going on.

"Oh, _Halo_!" She squeals as she sees the television. Sheldon watches as she glances down at her Cheesecake Factory uniform, red leather jacket over the top, before saying, "I'm gonna change. I'll be right back. Don't start the next round without me, okay?"

Leonard tells her they won't, but she closes the door before he can finish.

She comes back into the apartment moments later clad in a form-fitting pink velour jogging suit with a very small, very thin white shirt underneath the half-zipped jacket. Sheldon notices her lack of a bra when she plops down on the cushion to his right and her breasts jiggle just a little too much. It irritates him that he notices because these kinds of observations are for Leonard and Wolowitz and maybe Koothrappali – Sheldon Cooper is above looking at a woman's chest in hopes of making out the details of her mammary glands. He's relieved for once that Howard can't behave like a normal human being around Penny, since it takes the focus off of him.

"You are looking particularly radiant this evening, _ma__Cherie_." Howard's voice takes on a timbre that he must think is attractive, and Sheldon reaches for his bottle of water on the table, taking a long gulp. The water makes him feel more or less normal. Tomorrow is his masturbation night, as soon as his laundry is done, and he rationalizes that he's only noticing Penny and her breasts because it's been almost a week. He ignores the nagging thought that, a week or not, it is abnormal to be drawn to look at her breasts. He takes another sip of water, pushing thoughts of her breasts further from his mind. It is frustratingly difficult.

"I call Sheldon's team!" She grasps his wrist playfully, and he smiles at her enthusiasm in claiming him, keeping his eyes firmly on her face. She usually teams with Leonard, and he's actually quite happy for the change. Even when he doesn't take into consideration the fact that she's an attractive woman, even compared to a group of men who play video games obsessively, Penny is really good. Plus, this way he gets to watch someone else take the brunt of her taunts and jeers for a while.

They play best two out of three against Leonard and Howard, and win the first two short rounds heartily. Afterward, Leonard challenges them to a rematch and is in the middle of making a long-winded argument that they should have some kind of handicap put in place, when Penny _leans_ on him.

She just giggles and leans over so that her warm back is pressed against his side, trapping his arm against his body. His back stiffens and he takes a deep, calming breath because touching people is just...abnormal.

Still, though, he allows it. He doesn't push her away.

He had spent the previous night contemplating his relationship with Penny and holding the napkin in awe, astounded by the first gift he's received from a non-related adult that has felt like more than an obligation. The napkin holds deep meaning, and as he resisted the urge to taint Leonard Nimoy's DNA by rubbing the white cotton against his face, he came to the conclusions that 1) Penny is much fonder of him than he has previously suspected, 2) hugging her was actually quite pleasant, and 3) he is exceptionally pleased with conclusions 1 and 2. He thinks conclusion 3 means that he is much fonder of her than he has ever consciously noticed, but he isn't sure how to quantify the fondness he feels for her, and he certainly isn't sure how any of these conclusions are supposed to alter the minutiae of their relationship.

The first thing, he decided last night, is to make a conscious effort to anticipate her feelings in all of their interactions - something at which he has never excelled with any human being. But for Penny, he will try. And as she leans against him, he decides that _trying_ means not pulling away from her when she touches him, as he has generally done in the past. She likes to touch, and if it makes her happy to touch him, then he'll allow it. After all, even if she _is_ carrying some kind of airborne pathogen, physical contact barely increases his odds catching it. He might even improve his immunity to the pathogens that she seems to carry but from which she rarely suffers.

So he tries to relax as she leans against him, and after a minute it's actually not bad. She's warm, and she smells faintly of grapefruit, and he manages to let go of the stiffness in his spine. It's strange to realize that he actually enjoys her touch, that he could get used to this, and he smiles down at her when she tilts her head up to see if he's up for the rematch.

His right side is cold when she sits up, gripping her controller and letting her smile fall away, replaced by her competitive face. It's a frightening face to come off of such a friendly person, and it's been directed towards him enough times – both in real life altercations and in video game competitions – that he knows first hand how competitive she is. He is once again glad that she's on his side tonight.

Even with the handicap that Leonard demanded, they win easily, and Penny is even more ebullient than before. This time, she gives him a small, one-armed victory hug before settling her weight against him, and this time, he doesn't even tense at her touch.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you so much for reviews and alerts and favs! I was going to wait until the semester ends next week to edit the next chapter and post, but I just had to hurry it up. =) It's still kind of slow, and Penny and Sheldon are in their heads way too much, but it'll pick up in a few more chapters.

**Saturday December 27th 10:27am**

Sheldon is sitting on the couch with Raj and Howard, Leonard nearby in the white arm chair, watching _Firefly__. _It's a tradition to marathon the series on the Saturday before the New Year, and Raj and Howard have been at the apartment for a couple of hours. They've just finished "Bushwacked" and started "Shindig," and it's always this point at which his friends seem to lose their ability to keep their mouths shut and watch.

"I'm just saying, the _Enterprise_ is full of cannon fodder, so I'd rather be on Mal's ship than Kirk's," Raj nods his head, his face showing what Sheldon thinks is irritation when Leonard disagrees.

"But you'd have to be involved in illegal activities!"

"But there would be a _Companion_ on board." Wolowitz waggles his eyebrows lewdly as he speaks, and despite his irritation with talking during the show, Sheldon can't help breaking in.

"First of all, the presence of Inara on board should hardly factor into your decision, given that she would never engage in coitus with _you_. Second, this discussion is ludicrous: you simply cannot compare service on the prize ship in the Federation's fleet with service on a _Firefly_ class ship outrunning the Alliance!" With that, Sheldon considers the matter settled, and sits back into his seat with a huff.

"All I said was..." Whatever Raj would have said at that moment is cut off with a 'meep' when the door opens and Penny walks in carrying a large, empty coffee cup, her hair still damp from a shower and held up in a large springy clip.

"I got up early for work, but they just called to say they don't need me." They all turn their attention to her announcement because although the boys have been up for hours, it is unusual to see Penny before noon. Sheldon's eyes follow her into the kitchen, where she pours herself a mug of coffee with milk. She cradles the mug in her hands, as though maximizing skin-to-mug contact, and takes a long sip. His traces over the lines of her body, starting at her bare neck, running down the thin material of her long sleeved top, and taking his time down her bare legs, covered in exceptionally short draw-string shorts. He's not sure when, exactly, he started looking at her like this, but as he notices himself noticing her bare, firm thighs, he pulls his eyes back up towards her face, rationalizing that he is concerned that she must be cold in her shorts. It would explain why she appears so happy to be holding the warm coffee mug.

She looks up from her coffee and blushes intensely, and Sheldon realizes for the first time that all four of them are staring at her. He feels embarrassed – though he's unsure of whether he's embarrassed for her sake or embarrassed with himself for being a part of the staring – and he practically orders Raj onto the floor, making room for Penny on the middle cushion. She smiles gratefully at both of them before setting her coffee on the the table and settling next to Sheldon, sitting several inches closer than Raj had been, and thus putting several extra inches between herself and Wolowitz.

"Oh, it's Captain Hammer," she squeals, and Sheldon shakes his head condescendingly.

"Nathan Fillion played Mal many years before Captain Hammer, Penny," he informs her, and Penny smiles up at him before sinking into the show, clearly enjoying it. He's surprised at how much he's enjoying watching her enjoy it, though he only steals small glances at her.

Mal and Kaylee have just walked into the ball when Sheldon realizes how _close_ Penny actually is, and how comfortable he is with that fact. Christmas is only two days behind them, but since he let Penny into his personal space that day, it feels like she's just _stayed _there, and the way his arm is falling asleep from being smashed between them – practically underneath her – speaks to how close she really is. Then again, Howard Wolowitz is on her other side, so he doesn't really question why she's pressed against him. He just...can't quite figure out how how he feels about it. He made a promise to himself that he would be more considerate of her feelings, but the way she's touching him, the way he finds himself enjoying her touch, is unnerving because he should have to _force_ himself to allow this. Instead, it seems so natural, somehow.

Something changed when they exchanged gifts, but he's unsure as to whether it's a shift in paradigm or simply in expressions of their preexisting friendship. It's confusing because Leonard is the closest friend he's had in his adult life, and as far as he knows, nothing has shifted in their relationship since four and a half years ago when their roommate contract was expanded to include friendship clauses.

But he doesn't have a complete contract with Penny, so no clauses define what, exactly, is different here. And Penny was already his friend, which is why they exchanged gifts in the first place, so what are they now if there _has_ been a paradigm shift? And how do their respective gender roles tie into this shift? He's not sure about the answer to those questions, but he is sure that Penny has given him the best present he's received in his life, and if she thinks that their new relationship involves more incursions into each others personal space, then so be it. Aside from the lack of blood flow in his right arm, it is not at all unpleasant.

Slowly, so as not to give her the impression that he is pushing her away, he extracts his arm from between them. After a brief, awkward moment of wondering what to do with it, he lays it along the back of the couch, just behind her head, flexing his fingers to restore blood flow. He holds his breath for a long moment, wondering if she will shift away or come closer, wondering why he wants her to come closer. He can't help the smile when she slides further towards him, pulling her legs underneath her and leaning into him like she did on Christmas day, but much, much closer.

She seems largely unconscious of the way she's pressed against his side and the way her head would be resting on his shoulder if she leaned back, so he tries to be unconscious of it, too. His efforts are rendered moot when he catches the fragrance in her wet hair: something fresh and almost spicy which matches perfectly with the scent of her arm when it flutters briefly past his face as she asks whether Inara is really a prostitute. He can't seem to wrap his lips around an answer, and allows Howard's lewd response to go uncontested. Instead, he breathes in deeply, closing his eyes to enjoy the smell of her.

It's one of the scents he bought her, but it's not the cloying perfume that pervaded the bath and body shop where he had spent hours picking out her baskets – he had avoided sets that contained any of the nauseous lotions based on sweet fruits or desserts – and it makes him unconsciously lean closer. It's one to do with green tea and some kind of mint, he thinks, and it smells much better on her than it had in the basket. He breathes in slowly, enjoying the way it makes his brain feel foggy. Somehow, the knowledge that he picked out the shampoo that she massaged through her hair, the lotion that she rubbed over her naked body, doubles the foggy feeling, and he closes his eyes as he breathes in again.

Surrounded by her as he is, worrying over the new parameters of their relationship becomes impossible. He struggles to take in the brilliance of Joss Whedon and her scent at the same time, and utterly fails. He doesn't notice they've finished with the disc until Penny moves away from him at the promise of lunch.

Later that night, when he engages in his weekly masturbation, his normal clinically efficient fantasy scenario (which is built studying sexual research tomes) is replaced with a fantasy of watching Penny in the shower, her hands, slick with green-tea scented soap, running all over her flawless body.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Again, thanks so much for reviews and alerts and favorites. It makes me smile. =)

**Sunday December 28th 4:13pm**

She's unaccountably nervous as she raises her arm to knock on the door after her lunch shift. Penny does not do nervous. Everything feels weird, and part of it is that she hasn't gotten over the way Leonard was such a pain in the ass about her crappy thing with Dave.

She gave it a shot with Leonard, however briefly, and she's frustrated that he hasn't reached the same conclusions she has about their lack of compatibility. And, okay, maybe she was sort of a bitch to him around Dave, and she feels kinda bad about it, but if he would just stop acting like a jealous child, it would be a lot easier to be nice.

It should be easy enough to handle the fact that Leonard is moony over her; he just reads too much into the way she's a flirty person. So she needs to back off from the physical affection she bestows on everyone, usually, except that Raj is afraid of her and Howard is gross and Sheldon is...Sheldon.

But Sheldon hugged her on Christmas, and it was so, so sweet, and she's been maybe sitting too close to him since, maybe enjoying the fact that he lets her touch him, now. It wasn't conscious at first. It's just that normally when she goes to touch him, he flinches in an unconscious way that reminds her not to. And he's just...stopped flinching. He's stopped pulling back and he's stopped grimacing, and yesterday he kind of invited it, sliding his arm along the couch and holding his breath as she slid in closer.

And she's got to have _someone_ to bestow her affections on, especially since she needs to put distance between herself and Leonard so that he doesn't get the wrong idea. But it's thoughts of touching Sheldon, not putting up with Leonard's pouting, that are making her heart thump too fast. Why the thought of touching Sheldon translates to nervousness, she's not sure, but for some reason, her nerves surface in the form mimicking Sheldon's knock, which is wrong on multiple levels, especially since she normally doesn't knock at all.

_**__Knock__Knock__Knock__**_

"Sheldon," she stage whispers into the wood.

_**__Knock__Knock__Knock__**_

"Leonard!"

_**__Knock__Knock__Knock__**_

"Sheldon!"

Sheldon is smiling when he opens the door, and it's surprisingly non-creepy. It looks...practically normal to see him standing there smiling and inviting her in, and she's so surprised that she almost misses what he's saying. As her brain catches up with the moment, a moment in which Sheldon is smiling pleasantly at her and _resting __a __hand __on __her __back_ as he guides her into the apartment, she gathers that the rest of the boys just left to watch a double feature of _The __Day __the __Earth __Stood __Still__._

"...the theater refuses sell Icees, and although the 1951 movie is a classic, the new version was a massacre."

He's shaking his head seriously, and he's talking so quickly that she's almost dizzy, except that his hand is still there on the small of her back, and his fingers are moving slightly against her as he leads them to the sofa, and she wonders if that's what's making her dizzy. Not that being touched by Sheldon should make her dizzy, just...that it's so unexpected. And that he smells good, which she already knows, but it's still somehow unexpected.

She's nodding at his words when she takes a seat next to him and notices his open laptop sitting on the coffee table. She recognizes the animation for _Age of Conan_, and for a moment, she feels guilty for interrupting him before an idea strikes. There's a glint in her eye when she dashes out of the apartment, leaving the door wide open behind her with Sheldon sitting on the couch looking somewhere between startled, hurt, and pissy. She's back in a flash, though, slamming her unlocked door behind her before entering the boys' apartment again with her pink laptop.

"We should play with each other!" She announces her idea enthusiastically and is immediately embarrassed because the words come out funny, but the hurt is melting off of his face, and he's not laughing at her, so she thinks she's in the clear. He still looks startled and pissy for a moment, skeptical maybe, but something about his face tells her he wants to play.

"What level have you achieved with Queen Penelope?"

"She's level 65, but I started two other characters..." She pulls up her character selection screen and shows him her other options.

"You haven't been overindulging again, have you, Penny? Because that man from the cafeteria is still bothering me after the last time I attempted to assist you, and I won't put myself through that again." She can't hold back a giggle, and she pats his shoulder softly.

"Don't worry, Sheldon. I'm fine. And I won't go in your bedroom. I promise." She expects those words to soothe his worries, but instead he looks... Disappointed? Her hand freezes on his bicep as their eyes meet for a long moment that steals her breath. His normally grayish eyes look so blue, and she blushes before rising from the couch to plug in her laptop.

When she sits down, he's back to happy, smiling, pleasant Sheldon. Which, she realizes, she's rapidly coming to associate with normal Sheldon. Which is weird.

She thinks he looks proud of the fact that she started a Priestess who is apparently a perfect partner for his new level 22 Barbarian in PvP. Their characters kick total ass together, and Sheldon is being so sweet and approving that the hours fly by.

They sit on the sofa together, close enough to lean over and look at each others screens, close enough for him to reach her keyboard to set more ergonomic shortcuts for her character. It's while he's leaning over to her keyboard typing command strokes too quickly to see, his breath whispering across her cheek as he softly explains what he's doing, that she looks down at his hands. His fingers are so long, and his forearms, exposed by the pushed up sleeves of his thermal undershirt, are so sinewy and strong-looking. She's struck by how _masculine_ this part of his body is. Since she got to know him, she hasn't spent much time thinking about Sheldon as a man. And it's...unnerving...to be suddenly struck with the reminder. And actually more than a little erotic, especially with the way he's speaking, his lips so damn close to her ear. Why is Sheldon suddenly comfortable being this close, she wonders foggily.

There's a moment of silence, and she's hit with the fantasy image of Sheldon leaning over her on the couch, pinning her arms over her head as he whispers something dirty in her ear before kissing her. It's kind of weird, but submission has become a fantasy lately; maybe it's because she never dates the kind of men that she would be comfortable playing it out with. She wonders what it would be like to be with someone she can trust: someone sweet and unassuming, someone she could relax with.

She's not sure why, exactly, fantasies of Sheldon fit with any of that.

When he notices her spaced out expression, he actually puts down his computer and gets her a Diet Coke from the fridge. Their fingers brush when he hands it to her, and despite the close contact all day, the way he's touched her almost constantly, the way she drifted off into an unheard of fantasy, it hits her for the first time that something is really different. It's not about empty affectionate gestures. The way she feels about him is different somehow. He's not an outlet for her generic need to bestow affection; she wants to touch _him_, she wants _him_ to touch her. And he's definitely acting different. She's not sure if he's being extra nice because of the napkin, or if it's something more.

It frightens her that she wants it to be something more, even if she's not sure what.

She's sipping the Coke when the rest of the guys get home, and she thinks she registers surprise on their faces at the sight of her sitting with Sheldon, his arm stretched across the back of the couch behind her, like he had it yesterday, as he tells her more about Hyborea.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks again for reviews. In the world of emoticons, they make me colon capital d. :D

There are a few more chapters/days of "slow burn" to come. I hope the buildup makes the eventual ignition believable instead of out-of-character...so thanks for being patient.

**Tuesday**, **December**** 30 6:14**

It is silent in the car between Sheldon and Leonard, as Sheldon's annoyance has prevented him from initiating car games. They should be seated in the Cheesecake Factory in less than one minute, but are still at least four and a half minutes away. This fact is bothering him immensely.

"Leonard, it is now 6:14. Thanks to your dawdling, we will be late for dinner." Leonard rolls his eyes, and Sheldon adds, "It is particularly unbecoming when you express your annoyance in that manner. No wonder Dr. Stephanie left." Leonard rolls his eyes again.

When they finally arrive at the restaurant, Raj and Howard have beaten them there, and are already seated at their usual table. Penny is standing there, too, and even though he can only see her back, he can tell how tired she is from the way she is slumped, resting part of her weight on his usual chair.

He is pleased with himself being able to understand how she feels, even if it comes more from knowing her schedule than reading her posture.

She worked a double shift yesterday, resulting in her absence from Thai night, and Tuesday is a long day for her, too. She usually finishes her shift after they leave the restaurant, and it has never really occurred to him before, but he wishes that she could be done now...that she could sit and eat with them.

As he and Leonard get closer to the table, he hears Howard droning on about the club he plans to visit tomorrow night, where he'll dance and woo drunk women looking for one last 'hookup' before the end of the year. He's inviting her to come along, and Penny looks thoroughly unimpressed, so Sheldon jumps in as he takes his seat.

"Penny is joining me and Leonard tomorrow for our annual New Year's Superhero Movie Marathon."

"I even get to pick two of the movies!" Penny sounds enthusiastic. There might be sarcasm in her voice, of course, but he can't see her face as she is standing directly behind him. Not that he would necessarily be able to tell even if he could see her face.

Howard begins a rant about the relative merits of 'clubbing' versus superheroes, but Sheldon loses his chance to comment when he is momentarily startled by the feel of Penny's hands landing on his shoulders. She has returned to her previous position, leaning her weight against the back of the chair, but now with her palms resting on his shoulders, her fingers curled down so they touch just under his clavicles.

The nervous feeling only lasts a few seconds, and he doesn't even have to force himself to relax. It's easy to enjoy the way she holds his shoulders, the way her fingers drum absently against him before sliding lightly upwards, her nails scratching against his cotton shirt.

She laughs at something Howard has said, but he can't tell what, as he has narrowed all of his focus to her hands. At some point in the past few days, he has accepted it as normal, part of their routine that Penny will touch him. On Sunday, he attempted to touch her, and she seemed receptive. But the way Penny's fingers are squeezing and tapping on his shoulders is different. There's a level of comfort and familiarity in the gesture that he knows is new, and it feels wonderful. He thinks she's probably grown used to a routine of touching him, too.

He notices Leonard's face twitch slightly in time with the gentle beat of her fingers against his shoulders, and he tries to place the emotion. Jealousy, he thinks. It's jealousy because normally Penny would be standing by _his_ chair, but she's not. And even if she _were_ standing by Leonard's chair, her hands would not be on his shoulders like this. But Sheldon can't bring himself to care about Leonard because Penny's fingers are small and cool and strong. And as she walks away, they trail along the back of his neck, resulting in an alarming but very pleasant shiver down his spine that leaves him with a heavy, tingling sensation in his lower abdomen.

Even he can tell that it is awkward at the table when she leaves to place their orders, and Sheldon wonders for the first time about how his shifting paradigm with Penny will affect the rest of the group. It's somewhat difficult to wonder about that question, though, when he still doesn't understand what's happening beyond an increase in touching. He wonders if there's some sort of formula explaining the correlation of types and amount of touching with specific, culturally acknowledged relationship paradigms.

Leonard eventually resumes behavior patterns that seem relatively normal, but he falls quiet every time Penny is back at the table. And Penny manages to touch Sheldon every time she stops by, usually resting her hands on his shoulders. Once, she squeezes the back of his neck, resulting in another pleasant shiver, and their fingers brush twice as he hands her his glass for refills of lemonade.

He rarely even gets one refill, and he's never bothered with handing her his glass before. But the expected alteration of his typical urination schedule is worth it for the feeling of her fingers against his.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Oh my gosh. You guys are **so awesome** that I tried to hurry this one as much as I could...real-world work be damned. Thanks for reviews. **:D **

This was mostly written before we found out that the guys always go to costume parties at the comic book store on New Year's Eve...oh well. So they're watching superhero movies instead of dressing up like superheroes.

My summer officially starts on Thursday (when I'll finally be able to actually _read_ Shenny fan fiction!), and I might not be able to post again before then. I'll try my best, though.

**Wednesday ****December**** 31 7:23****pm**

It's New Years Eve, and Penny has no plans.

Well, she does, technically, have plans. It's just that those plans involve going across the hall, like any other night of the year, to watch superhero movies. (Howard is dragging Raj to pointlessly hit on women at a club somewhere, or she would be nervous about midnight kissing.)

She was invited to three parties tonight, and she turned down two dates, and she's standing in front of the full length mirror on her closet door wondering why. She's supposed to be wearing a slutty dress and gaudy jewelry and going to a loud party to celebrate the new year...and instead she's in sweatpants and a tank top preparing to watch movies.

Granted, she's going to watch movies with two men that have become her closest friends in the world, and they're letting her pick two (she's chosen _Iron __Man_ and _Batman __Begins _because they're good and she knows they'll approve, but also because it doesn't hurt that Christian Bale and Robert Downey Jr. are freaking hot), but there's something missing. She kicks off the sweatpants and pulls the shirt over her head before slipping off her white cotton panties and unhooking her sports bra. Maybe she's not doing anything particularly glamorous, but she wants to at least feel sexy for the night. Lacy purple thong and demi-bra set replace the boring underwear, and she chooses a short, dark denim skirt before running her eyes through the tops in her closet. She picks a dark purple, long sleeved top with a deep, open V-neck that leaves her feeling cute, but not over-dressed. She pulls her hair out of the messy bun it's been in and runs her fingers through it, pleased with the sexy-messy curls. Mascara and lip gloss finish the look, and she feels a little shallow that new clothes and makeup make her feel so much better, but it works.

She's getting ready to pad across the hall when she hears Sheldon knocking at her front door. When she swings it open, his eyes fall from her face to her chest, lingering there for a long moment before wandering back up. It sends a jet of heat through her body that she can't really explain, and she's disappointed when his mouth falls into a frown.

"Have you decided to abandon movie night as well?" His voice sounds defeated, and she can't help the hand that stretches out to touch his chest.

"No, sweetie, I'm coming over to watch movies with you and Leonard." He smiles at that, and she wants to hug him when his face falls again.

"Leonard has chosen to exercise his baser instincts – not that they are in need of the work out – with Raj and Wolowitz tonight." He ends the sentence with a small pout, and she moves the hand on his chest in small circles. Counter-clockwise.

"It's perfectly normal for Leonard to want to go out. You and me can stay in together." He grimaces at her words, and because she notices (because she was a damn English major for four semesters no matter how much she normally doesn't care about correct grammar) she corrects her incorrect use of 'me.' "You and _I_ can stay in together." She smiles up at him, and although he cracks an adorable grin at that, it's rapidly replaced by the same pouting, worried expression.

"You say it is 'perfectly normal' for Leonard to want to go out...do you mean to imply that I am not 'perfectly normal'?"

Penny is stunned at the hurt in his voice as much as the content of the question, and she's certain that Leonard, Howard, and Raj have been giving him a hard time about being abnormal. (_Because of you_, a voice in her head tells her, but she pushes the thought aside.) All she can do is try to lighten the situation, make him see how silly he's being.

"You mean you _want_ to be 'perfectly normal'?" He smiles a little, but it's a sad smile, and the circles she's been making with her hand stop. "Sheldon, you're better than 'perfectly normal,'" she nods while she says it, and the sad look slides off of his face.

"Well I know that," he cocks his head arrogantly, and she rolls her eyes because of course he knows that. She pulls her hand away, and he shocks her by grabbing it and holding it to his chest. "You, however, generally fit the cultural standards of 'perfectly normal,' no matter how good you are at _Halo_. And it has been suggested that you might prefer to go to a party." It's strange, sometimes, to remember that he has real feelings that sometimes get hurt. It's even stranger to think that his feelings are hurt by the prospect of her not wanting to spend New Year's Eve with him.

"I just want to spend the evening with my friends," she smiles at him before gingerly leaning up and giving him the hug she had wanted to when she answered the door. It's different than the one on Christmas. She's on her toes, her arms snaked around his neck, and his arms are much less stiff when they circle her waist. It's amazing how much less awkward he is after a week, and she rests her cheek on his chest.

She's startled when he pulls away from the hug with a determined glint in his eye.

"Will you assist me in choosing appropriate attire for a 'club'? I am unfamiliar with what is dictated as 'normal' in this situation." She's concerned with his overuse of 'normal,' but she nods her head and lets him pull her across the hall by her right hand. Howard, Raj, and Leonard are all sitting on the couch in perfectly horrible patterned silk shirts, Howard in primary colors and Raj and Leonard in pastels. But Sheldon doesn't release his grip on her hand as they move through the living room and into his room, and he doesn't say anything out of the ordinary when she steps foot in his bedroom. Which is out of the ordinary.

Instead of any Sheldon-like comments, he pushes the door shut and then stands there, looking more than a little lost, his gaze turned towards the floor. It takes her a moment of studying his face to realize that he's actually looking at their joined hands. The sight of him staring at their hands, the sight of their hands, the feel of her palm pressed against his and his long fingers curled around hers...all of it sends another jet of heat through her body, makes her feel tight and quivery very low in her stomach.

"Sweetie," she pulls his attention to hers and gently reclaims her hand. "Wouldn't you rather stay here with me and watch movies?"

"I suppose," he swallows, looking nervous about whatever answer he has, "that I am curious about the social paradigm of the 'club,' and I had hoped you would accompany me."

His eyes look darker than usual as they implore her to do as he is asking, and she nods.

"I thought you and I might go in a separate vehicle, so that we would not be a part of whatever _they_ will be doing."

"Okay." She nods her agreement quickly before he has a chance to think through what he's asking her. She's kind of afraid that if he _does_ think it through, he'll realize that he's asking her on a date. And she kind of really likes this idea for some reason that she can't think about too much. "Show me what you have to wear."

Sheldon opens the third dresser drawer from the top, and she can see that it's full of jeans that he never wears; she imagines that his mother or Missy have bought them. He picks out a dark wash 'distressed' pair, the tags still on, and holds them up for inspection, getting an approving nod from Penny. Then he sits down, looking lost.

"I do not own any appropriate shirts," he announces as he sinks onto his bed, and Penny bursts out laughing because she thinks he's probably comparing his wardrobe to the tacky silk shirts the other guys are wearing. They spend a minute laughing at Raj's shirt in particular, which is patterned in pale pink and yellow like an Easter egg, before Penny stands up and opens dresser drawers at random until she comes across his collection of t-shirts. One of his nicer shirts and a color-coordinated thermal paired with jeans will look just fine, she thinks, and he'll probably be happier than if she tries to push his comfort zone.

She's careful as she thumbs through the shirts to keep everything in order and unwrinkled before plucking out a black t-shirt with some kind of purple wave design that may or may not be scientific, and a dark purple thermal.

"Penny, I wear that shirt to work, or to the comic book store." She rolls her eyes.

"Who's the normal one here?" He smirks at that and takes the shirts. "Now, do you have some black shoes?" He nods, and she pats his head, telling him to get dressed while she puts on some shoes.

She ponders changing into something sexier when she steps inside her apartment, but decides against it. Some part of her really likes the idea that they're going to match in their purple shirts, even if she does feel a little plain. Instead, she adds black eyeliner and blush to her face before pulling on a pair of black, high heeled boots that climb up her bare calves. She quickly grabs her short black leather jacket, her wallet stuffed in the front pocket, and rushes back across the hall.

When she walks back into the living room, all of the guys turn to stare, and she smiles at the attention, breezing through the room without letting it phase her. When she steps into Sheldon's room, she stops cold. He's added a pair of shiny black dress shoes with a squared toe that she doesn't think she's seen before, and he's also located a black leather jacket. The denim is the perfect length, accentuating his height, and the jacket accentuates the broadness of his shoulders. It's a very, very good look for him, and she feels a little self conscious that she's staring.

He seems unhappy with the ensemble, though, and her instinct is to give him another hug. She doesn't act on it, but she wonders when, exactly, she started wanting to hug him so damn much.

"I'm dressed nearly identically to any other day," he mutters, and Penny wonders if this has to do with the 'normal' thing.

"You look very handsome," she says earnestly, and his eyes meet hers in the small space. She wonders if he can tell from the look on her face that she's attracted to him in that moment, and it's not about the jeans. Something changes in his face, and his eyes grow even more intense. Was Sheldon always this masculine, and she just didn't notice it? Or has something changed? She's not sure, but it makes her quiver.

"You look quite lovely tonight, Penny." His voice is soft, and even though the compliment makes her insides melt, she can't help dismissing it.

"I'm hardly dressed up, Sheldon." She shakes her head, but the intense look on his face doesn't change.

"Then, as always, you are an extremely visually appealing woman." She can _feel_ his eyes move along her body, and she wonders at the fact that it's Sheldon doing it. There's a part of her brain that tells her he doesn't even know what he's doing, that he's just taking in her outfit, not checking her out. There's another, larger part of her brain that knows that's exactly what he's doing, and it makes her knees weak.

That part of her once again asks what the hell is going on with her and Sheldon. She's had a lot of close male friends in her life, but she's also generally good at judging whether she might ever sleep with someone in the first five minutes of knowing them. So she's never been _this _turned on while a male friend in the "non-sexual" category trailed his eyes up her legs. She tries to remember the first five minutes after she met Sheldon, and what comes to mind is a shy, cute smile as she looked at his white board. She'd been so impressed with his brain and his height and his plaid pants and vintage shirt, which screamed of an indie fashion sense...at least before she knew him better. It's startling to realize that he was definitely _not_ in the "non sexual" category for those five minutes.

When they walk out of his bedroom, the other three guys are anxious to leave, but seem startled at Sheldon's appearance, or maybe at her hand once again clasped in his. She can almost see the gears in their heads turning, imagine them each realizing how stupid they look.

"You know, it's late..." Leonard glances down at his watch and Penny rolls her eyes because it's barely eight. "And superhero movie night _is_ a tradition."

Raj nods enthusiastically, and actually proceeds to remove the silk shirt, revealing his white undershirt. Leonard likewise leaves the room to change his shirt. Howard holds out, but at the realization that he won't have a wingman, he sighs and takes a seat on the couch.

Sheldon rolls his eyes at all of them and slips off his leather jacket before sliding his hands up her arms and helping her out of her jacket, too. The move makes her melt a little, especially when his fingers trail ever so softly across the back of her neck.

They start with _Batman Begins_, and Penny curls towards Sheldon while he stretches his arm across the back of the sofa, as though there's never been a time when they didn't sit like this.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I totally intended to have Sheldon and Penny go clubbing in the last chapter, but they refused to go. (Do you ever have a hard time making characters do what you want them to? So stubborn.)

Thanks for reviews. They make me *squee* and ignore actual responsibilities in favor of posting new chapters. Sorry if it's kinda short and not perfect. More actual interaction soon; promise.

**Thursday ****January**** 1 6:37****am**

Sheldon has something of a headache when he wakes up just a few hours after going to bed, and he stumbles out of his bedroom in search of water. Early in the movie marathon, Raj and Howard had gone out to get alcohol, claiming that they would 'Bring the party here.' He had foolishly caved to peer pressure and indulged in two glasses of champagne, which were especially potent on his untutored metabolism. Although it had been fairly pleasant last night, this morning he is left with a terrible case of dry mouth and a mild headache. He makes it into the living room and almost falls over at the vision of Penny passed out on the couch.

He vividly remembers the way she had slowly moved closer to him all night, until she was fast asleep against his shoulder by 2am. Raj and Howard had left shortly after that, but the pleasant warmth of Penny's sleeping body and the intoxicating aroma of her hair had made Sheldon more willing than usual to fight off sleep. Leonard had insisted on staying up with him, silently watching two original _Batman_ episodes with Eartha Kitt. When they had finally gone to bed, Leonard had given Sheldon a strange look for taking special care as he extricated himself from Penny's half-embrace, and for retrieving a blanket and pillow from his room. He still doesn't understand why Leonard seemed surprised or concerned or upset with these actions. It was only logical, after all, to want to avoid waking Penny, and to bring her a blanket to keep her from getting cold.

He had left her curled innocently under a blanket, which is why he is so startled by her current posture on the couch, which is anything but innocent.

Her head is still in his spot, but the blanket is hopelessly tangled underneath her splayed legs, exposing the way that her short denim skirt has slid up her hips and the open neck of her shirt has twisted during the night. He can't make out details in the dim room, but he can see purple lace covering the soft swell of her otherwise-exposed left breast and a hint of matching lace between her thighs. The sight knocks the breath from his lungs, makes his heart beat double time, and sends all the blood in his body pulsing towards his genitals. His first thought is, quite simply, to run away and pretend that he didn't see her like this. But the thought of Leonard coming out and taking in the same sight is extremely distasteful, so he creeps over to the couch and tries to pull the blanket out from under her legs.

She moans when his hand settles on her knee, leaving him mortified, but the accompanying arch of her back helps him free the blanket. He's about to re-cover her when he hears her moan his name. It's a sleepy sound, low and deep in her throat and mostly unintelligible, but he can make out the consonants well enough to tell.

The sound makes him freeze like a deer in headlights, worried he's been caught doing something wrong but simultaneously unable to shake the thought that he must be doing something very right for her to moan like that. He looks up into her face and determines that she is still asleep, which causes him to question whether she could have really said his name at all. And then she does it again, enunciating much more clearly.

"_Shel_-don."

He's never heard his name said in a way that makes it sound so _good._ The sound of it makes his whole body throb in time with his accelerating heartbeat and creates a pleasant, tingling ache below his stomach. He swallows, his dry mouth suddenly even more dry, and he realizes that he still has a hand on her knee. Without really meaning to, he finds himself sliding his hand several centimeters up her thigh, feeling the warm, firm flesh. Despite the fact that he knows he shouldn't be touching her, he finds it exceedingly difficult to pull his hand away, especially when she moans again at the feel of his fingertips against her skin.

And so, when Penny's eyes open, Sheldon is crouched over her with an obvious erection, one hand exploring the skin above her left knee.

"Sheldon?" She whispers his name, her voice still holding some of the sensual timbre she had used in her sleep, and he blushes scarlet with embarrassment as he finally finds the strength of will to pull his hand off of her.

"Penny." His voice cracks when he says her name, the register raised due to his arousal, and he tries again. "Penny. I came out for water and you were..." Sheldon can't help the way his eyes drift from her face down her body, only stopped by Penny's sudden noise of understanding. She quickly pulls at her shirt and skirt so that she's covered, and Sheldon smiles nervously before flinging the blanket over her.

"What time is it?" The question comes out slurred, 'Timsit?,' and he smiles down at her.

"Early," he answers, an uncharacteristically vague answer for him, but also, he knows, the information Penny is searching for. He nods his head before glancing at the clock in the kitchen in order to answer more exactly. "Six forty one." She groans, and he heads to the kitchen for a water bottle, using the cover of the refrigerator door to adjust himself in his briefs and pajama pants. He returns to the couch with two bottles of water, and she eagerly stretches out her hand for hers. She sits up and takes a few long gulps, her head tilted backwards, and moans her thanks as she empties the bottle of well over half of its contents. It is astoundingly erotic.

For some reason that he doesn't understand, he waits for her to set the bottle on the table and then readjusts her blanket, effectively tucking her in. She smiles up at him sleepily, and before he can process what's happening, he is bending over and kissing her forehead lightly the way his Meemaw used to do whenever she tucked him in. They both freeze for a moment at the unexpected contact, but when he pulls away, she smiles up at him.

"Good night," she whispers. He bites back the urge to correct her — technically, it is morning, after all, and unlike her, he is usually awake at this time — and instead just nods as she snuggles back into the couch. He waits a moment longer before heading back to his bedroom to try get a little more sleep.

When he wakes up again just after ten o'clock, she has already left for work.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Thanks for reviews! They make me ridiculously happy. :D I'm glad everyone's digging the slow buildup...it's going to speed up rather significantly in the next few chapters. I'm rewriting and revising a lot, but I'll try to post as quickly as possible.

**Friday January 2 11:17am**

Penny thumps down on her couch, irritated with her life. She's been jumping on every extra shift available, but it doesn't help the fact that they've cut back her hours. She's hoping that it changes soon, when some of the college students they hired for the holiday go back to school for the Spring semester. Yesterday, she had worked a grueling double shift, waiting on ornery, hung over assholes, but today her regular lunch shift is gone, and, truth be told, she really needs the money.

Without work to at least somewhat occupy her mind, it's hard to keep her thoughts from turning to the nerdy physicists across the hall. Leonard had given her a few weird looks on New Year's Eve, and she understands why — she does — she just wishes that he'd cut it out. But even if he'd never had a crush on her, even if they hadn't been on one mediocre date, he would probably still be shooting her weird looks for cuddling with _Sheldon_on the couch.

Which is, like, weird. But also strangely normal.

It's weird how normal it is to get close to him, like they've fallen into a routine where this is how they are, now. It makes sense, kind of, since a new routine is the only thing that could ever make Sheldon do things like sit with her on the couch and let her fall asleep with her head on his shoulder. And hug her and kiss her on the forehead (the memory of waking up on their couch from a dream about Sheldon, only to see him there with his hand on her thigh, is hazy, but the tender way he tucked her in has stuck with her). Of course, the butterflies that erupt in her stomach don't feel very routine at all.

She wonders if he feels it, too, or if all this is to him is another routine. Maybe it doesn't really mean anything when Sheldon Cooper decides it's okay to touch you. It doesn't exactly prove he has a _deal_, anyways, no matter how sure she is that he was checking her out.

It's uncommon for Penny to be _this_ unsure of how a man feels about her. But Sheldon isn't like other men, and the way they've been getting closer isn't normal — at least not normal like she usually does it. And then there's the sixty four thousand dollar question: even if this is real...then what?

She's pulled out of these thoughts by Sheldon's knock.

"Hello, Penny." He greets her awkwardly when she swings the door open, and she smiles.

"Hi, Sweetie. Why aren't you at work?" Sheldon tilts his head to the side, as though he doesn't understand her ignorance, and she remembers that although he seems to be able to get by without doing much teaching, he and Leonard work at a university. As in, a place that's still closed for Christmas break. She thinks he might be about to lecture her, so she jumps in before he can speak. "Sorry. I forget sometimes that you work at a school." He nods his head at that.

"An understandable oversight, as Leonard and I are generally not called upon to exercise our talents in a pedagogical context." He's looking at her in a way that seems out of context for a conversation about his job — very serious, with wide eyes that examine her. "The university does not open for another week, and I have been attempting to find ways to fill my time." His wide, blue eyes catch hers and hold her gaze, like she couldn't look away if she wanted to, and it's a long moment before he continues speaking. "I have run out of ways to entertain myself."

She's instantly irritated. There have been all these _thoughts_ about him swirling in her brain for the past week, and he only wants to see her when he's 'run out of ways to entertain himself.' She's going to lay into him, but he clearly sees what's coming, and he looks...sad.

"I apologize, Penny. I waited until after eleven, as per our agreement, but I..." She cuts him off with a gentle hand on his chest. For the first time, she sees the _Iron__Man_ dvd gripped in his left hand — they didn't get to it on New Year's Eve, and it had been one of her picks. She hears him saying, in not so many words, that he was trying to entertain himself to avoid bothering her. That he wanted to come over here earlier.

"No, come in, Sheldon." She steps aside and lets him into her apartment. "I've been irritated that they're cutting back my hours at work is all." She doesn't tell him that she's also irritated by her inability to get a grip on what's going on between them, even down to whether he's feeling it, too. Instead, she grabs the dvd, ignores the horrified sweep his eyes make of her apartment (it's actually pretty clean, by her standards), and makes a vague gesture to the chair that he's previously selected as his official spot.

But when she turns from the dvd player to take her own seat on the couch, Sheldon is sitting there, on the right hand side of her couch. He's sitting there, not in his spot, looking somewhat nervous and uncomfortable just so he can sit next to her. It's kind of adorable. She grins at him and moves to stand immediately in front of him, wedging herself between his knees. He's tall, and actually really cute, and when he touches her it's hard to think straight. Normally, if a guy with these attributes were sitting on her couch, she would be crawling into his lap right now. Instead, she quirks up one side of her mouth.

"You're in my spot." She gives perfect deadpan delivery, and the way his face goes from shocked to embarrassed to a slow smile as he catches her sarcasm is actually pretty endearing. He laughs slightly, but his eyes grow more serious as she continues to look down at him.

"Would you like me to move, Penny?" She realizes that she's still standing between his knees, still staring down at him, and can't help the blush that spreads across her features as she takes her seat on his right. Because it's now part of their routine when sitting together, his arm extends along the back of the couch, and she scoots in close after grabbing the remote control.

They relax into the movie, but Penny can't stop her eyes from wandering over to Sheldon from time to time. She notices him doing the same thing, trailing his eyes along her legs and shooting sideways glances at her as though he's nervous about what happens next. His left hand — the one not laid across the back of the couch — twitches in his lap, and she's suddenly quite sure that he wants to be touching her with it, or maybe that he's remembering touching her with it.

And just like that — because Penny's always been an impulsive person, it's part of her charm, really — she comes to a decision.

His behavior lately has been so sweet; it's like when Tommy Wilson asked her out in 8th grade, and they spent weeks watching movies together, occasionally holding hands. It's strange to think about it, but she's almost entirely sure that Sheldon is a virgin. He's almost definitely a virgin, and he was getting his freaking doctorate with women fifteen years older than he was when he should have been sitting on a couch with a girl, sneaking glances at her and trying to touch her softly every chance he got. It's actually not all that weird to think that a he might approach starting a relationship just like Tommy had.

It's sort of surreal that she's thinking about being in a relationship with Sheldon. The guy is, as Leonard has told her many times, bat crap crazy, and fussy, obsessive compulsive, egotistical, and actually kind of an emotional basket case.

Then again, it's tempting to wonder how much of his crazy is related to his lack of intimate contact. Sheldon hasn't been radiating the same level of OCD lately. It feels like it's been toned down, and she wonders if it's because he's been thinking about her; about whatever this is. And, reservations about his mental state aside, she's sort of overwhelmed with how much she's been enjoying his company since Christmas. He hasn't seemed crazy, just sweet. She's never spent so much time with a guy who seemed so genuinely interested in just being around her. In addition to making great company, there's something behind his eyes that sets off a spark in her blood. That spark has always been funneled into feuds and arguments with him, and it's funny to think of it being attraction. But it's there, and she kind of thinks it always has been.

When she glances at him again, he catches her stare and holds it for a long, heated moment. He has such gorgeous eyes, and they light that spark inside her somewhere, and it's so _different_ than anything she's known before but also similar enough that she understands what it is. She decides, then, that even if she can't be sure about exactly what _he__'__s_ feeling, she's going to try this. It's too good not to try, even if she'll have to take it really slow.

And because Penny is charmingly impulsive, she shoots Sheldon what she hopes is a sexy smile (his blush means that she succeeds, she thinks) before breaking their gaze by leaning further into his chest. Slowly, so as not to startle him, she reaches across his lap and captures his left hand between both of hers.

His whole body stiffens momentarily before he relaxes, allowing her to trail her fingertips softly across his palm in a way that makes him shiver. A moment later, he returns the favor.

The touches are surprisingly sensual, and the feel of his fingertips softly tracing up her wrist makes her moan against his chest. She feels him shudder at the sound, pretends not to see the evidence that he's as turned on as she is, and instead grasps his hand with hers.

They hold hands through the rest of the movie, Penny struggling to keep her thoughts and actions PG rated. Because she's going to do this, and she's going to do it at a speed that will make sure Sheldon is comfortable.

**[*Soon* ...Penny discovers that Sheldon is actually pretty comfortable going faster.]**


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Thank you for reviews! They make me ridiculously happy.

I'm rewriting the next chapter...not sure when it will be done, but I thought I'd go ahead and post this one.

**Saturday****, ****January**** 3 11:02****am**

It's Penny's Saturday off, and Sheldon waits until just after eleven to head across the hall for the second day in a row. He has made a decision.

They've spent the past nine days in a confusing, undefined, non-contracted state, and yesterday Sheldon was finally able to acknowledge to himself that their relationship paradigm has officially shifted from friendship to something else. While many of the changes in their actions toward each other have been difficult to interpret — he has been at a loss to quantify the meaning of a few hugs, of her fingers against his neck, of his arm propped behind her on the couch — he understands hand-holding as part of a romantic relationship paradigm. Especially hand-holding the way she had initiated it yesterday while sitting on the couch, their fingers occasionally playing against each other's.

A few internet searches have largely agreed with him, even if it is difficult to take any of the half-literate blabbering on _Yahoo__! __Answers_ seriously. An increase in touching, particularly when such touching includes hand-holding, that is observed between two individuals (where no such change exists between other members of a social group) indicates the beginning of a romantic relationship.

He is pleased with the idea of entering into a romantic relationship with Penny, particularly given his reactions to her in the past week. Despite the fact that she lacks a college education, she is remarkably clever, and he finds that he enjoys spending time in her company. This had been true even before the past week, but the added physical component of their new relationship paradigm increases this enjoyment exponentially. While he has always avoided such relationships in the past, he believes that it would be irrational to retreat from a situation that is bringing him so much pleasure.

He is aware, of course, that Penny will expect a sexual component to such a relationship paradigm, but he finds that his aversion to such activities has decreased now that he can understand their purpose as a way to seek interpersonal connection rather than purely personal fulfillment. His arousal at her touch — even at the mere thought or remembrance of her touch — has been substantial, and the idea of satisfying his growing sexual urges _with__Penny_is thrilling. The idea of satisfying Penny is particularly thrilling.

Although he is far from certain that Penny feels the same way or intends the touches to be part of such a paradigm shift, he has come to the conclusion that the most reasonable course of action is to treat Penny like a potential, desired mate. Like his girlfriend. (It does not occur to him that discussing the state of their relationship with her might be a more logical course of action. Nothing could be logical about acknowledging his emotional state without some assurance that she feels the same way.)

He is nervous about this decision. It is in direct opposition to his usual manner of contracted behaviors; after all, he did not even acknowledge Leonard as his friend until he had added dozens of extra clauses to the roommate agreement. But everything about Penny seems to run in direct opposition to his usual manner of doing _everything_, and for once, he doesn't care. Those woefully illiterate posters on _Yahoo __Answers_ and a few dating advice blogs had generally agreed with this course of action, though, which makes him feel better even if he is nervous about taking the advice of strangers who cannot achieve subject-verb agreement. The consensus, though, is that if he wants Penny to agree to a romantic relationship paradigm, he should attempt to demonstrate his suitability within such a paradigm.

So, he stands outside her apartment, nervously clutching the first season of _Star__Trek__: __The __Original __Series_ and a small paper sack with two pints of Ben and Jerry's Brownie Batter, which he is certain is her favorite even if she only ever buys low fat vanilla.

He can see her shadow beneath the door after his first knock, and it makes him smile that she waits for him to finish before opening the door. Penny looks happy to see him, or at least he thinks she does, and invites him in, eying the brown paper sack he carries along with the DVD set.

"Everyone has gone to a screening of the complete director's cuts of _Lord __of __the __Rings_ plus special features, which will keep them busy until well past 2am." Her eyes narrow slightly at his words, and he wonders what he's doing wrong. "I stayed home so I could show you this." Her eyes light up, and he thinks he understands her reaction. He needs to let her know right away that he desires her company, and not make her think that she is a back up plan. He made this same mistake yesterday, and he tells himself he will be careful not to make it again.

"You want me to watch _Star __Trek_?" She looks nervous, maybe, and he wishes he were better at reading her facial cues. To counteract her question, he thrusts the brown paper sack of ice cream towards her, smiling when she looks inside and sighs happily.

"I believe you will enjoy it_. __Star __Trek_ is a cultural touchstone, Penny. There are parodies of it on television and in the movies that you don't understand. And you'll catch the beginning of William Shatner's career." She's smiling as he lists reasons she should watch, and he thinks he's got her. Finally, as their eyes meet, the real reason he wants to share this with her comes out. "You should know who Leonard Nimoy is." He nods earnestly, and her lips fall open slightly. "You should know why that napkin is the best present I have ever received."

She nods, and he grins at her, feeling a little giddy. As she turns to put the ice cream in the freezer for safe keeping, she says something that shocks him.

"I've been meaning to watch it, you know?" His face must clearly radiate the fact that he did not know because she keeps talking. "I watched the first season of _Heroes_, like, religiously. After that, it kind of sucked..." He nods because it's true. "But Zachary Quinto is...amazing." She blushes slightly, and he realizes that she's talking about her desire to see the upcoming _Star__Trek_ movie. It makes something in his chest ache to know that she loves the actor who, based on the publicity stills he's seen so far, is going to be a great Spock, even though he can't possibly live up to Nimoy.

"Then you will have the added bonus of having seen the series before the film comes out." She smiles and nods, and they move to sit on the couch together, his arm behind her as has become the norm. She's close to him, but not quite touching, and he's unnerved by how much he _wants_ her to be touching him. Touching Penny has become easy, habit, enjoyable, but to _want_it so much is still a foreign sensation.

They watch the first three episodes silently, though he feels fairly certain that Penny is enjoying it, but after almost two hours of near silence, he is actually relieved when she begins a running commentary during "The Naked Time."

"Don't take off your space suit!" She screeches at the screen. "What is _wrong _with those guys?"

"They are not very logical," Sheldon offers, smirking down at her.

"I hope Spock smacks them," she mutters, and he can't help but chuckle.

He is glad that she appears to have no knowledge of the _Next __Generation _episode when the crew encounters a similar infection, leading to coitus between Tasha Yar and Data. He has been teased by his friends about his lack of sex appeal relative to an android enough to make it a sore point.

By the end of the episode, she's actually laughing at the show, at what she calls _camp_, and he feels profoundly unsure about what to make of her reaction. And then she leans into him, resting her head on his shoulder, and begs him to start the next disc.

"Want to watch disc two and then order Chinese?" Her eyes are hopeful, and he nods.

"The best episodes do not appear until later..." Watching the show through her eyes, he's aware that it is, perhaps, possible to find it silly, and he is feeling the need to defend it.

"Well, we have until really late before everyone gets home, right? I bet we could get through two more discs today."

"Yes, I believe we could." He's not quite sure why it makes his heart pound to know that she's excited to share this with him. It pains him to slide her head off of his shoulder to change the discs.

"I like Spock the best," she announces, and he's glad that he has his back to her as he carefully pops disc one into its holder. He searches her words for sarcasm and finds none, so he swallows down a lump in his throat before turning around. He watches her intently as she continues. "He's the most interesting, right? I mean, he's half human, so it's not a matter of having no emotions, it's all a matter of keeping them under controlled."

"In fact, it is not his human side that implies his strong emotions. Vulcan emotional states are revealed to be highly erratic. It was only through learning to control their emotions that Vulcans were able to achieve peace and prosperity." He nods his head thoughtfully. "The ritual of Kolinahr is meant to purge all emotions, but most Vulcans do not achieve this. Most of them, Spock included, merely keep a strong meditative focus on mastering the emotions. If anything, his human side makes it more difficult for him to maintain the discipline of the teachings of Surak."

"But Spock is always fighting to control his emotions, trying not to let anything show. He wants everyone to believe he has no emotions, doesn't he?"

"I believe you are correct. Spock would prefer for humans to believe him devoid of emotion."

"But everyone is always so mean about it all the time...teasing him about being unemotional and trying to get him to crack, even though they know that it would bother him."

"They do not intend their jokes to be cruel," he offers quietly, although Penny certainly has a point.

"Yeah," she answers, looking down at the couch and picking at a piece of fluff, "I think they sometimes _do_."

"But generally they are trying to be friendly. Despite the fact that they are sometimes misguided, they only want to be Spock's friends and have little understanding of how to express friendship to someone outside of human emotional constructs."

"Do you think that Spock still likes them, even though they're all emotional and not as smart as he is and sometimes don't know how to be friends with him?"

"I..." Sheldon freezes suddenly as the double meaning of this conversation dawns on him. "Yes," he answers, imbuing the word with certainty. "Despite the fact that they do not always understand each other perfectly, Spock is able to understand that their jokes are generally overtures of friendship. And he sometimes wishes that he better understood how to express to them that he...likes them."

"Yeah?"

"Of course, Penny," he answers, suddenly unable to look her in the eye. His gaze drops to the floor and he rubs his suddenly-damp palms against his thighs. "Spock continually seeks out the company of the bridge crew, far beyond what is required even given their proximity and close living quarters."

"And that means he likes them?"

"Of course. Why else would he do it?"

"And if he 'seeks out someone's company' a _lot_...would that mean that he likes that person a lot?"

Sheldon turns startled eyes towards Penny, and is unable to read the look on her face. She holds his gaze, seemingly searching for something somewhere behind his eyes. He finds himself hoping that he can give her whatever it is she wants to see.

"That would be the logical assumption," he finally answers.

Her eyes hold his for a few seconds more, and then she smiles warmly at him, beckoning him back to his seat. He takes a deep breath, pleased that he was able to give her what she wanted, and as he sits down, he lets his arm fall not on the back of the couch, but around her shoulders. It's awkward for a moment, fitting together in a new way, and then she shifts further towards him and it's perfect. He sighs contentedly as he presses 'Play All' on disc two and relaxes into her touch.

Now that she is pressed against him, he ventures to stretch his left hand across his lap towards her hand in order to initiate handholding. Instead of touching her hand, though, the tips of his fingers make contact with her bare left thigh. He panics briefly, but any urge to quickly move away vanishes at the very quiet moan she lets out, more a puff of air than a vocalization. He is surprised when she hooks her left leg over his right, making it clear that she finds his touch acceptable.

Moving slowly, he traces his fingers along her thigh, enjoying the feeling of her skin. It is warm and smooth and firm, as he was already quite aware, and he quickly learns that when his fingers move towards her inner thigh, her skin erupts in goosebumps. When he flips his hand over, dragging his nails gently along her skin, she shudders next to him, letting out another breathy moan.

It is an addictive sound, and he finds himself cataloging the precise movements that elicit it, from the soft strokes of his fingertips to his whole hand splayed wide across her skin.

He loses track of how long he continues to touch her this way, as they watch Kirk and his "evil half" run about the _Enterprise_, until he begins to move his hand higher.

When his fingers dip just underneath the hem of her shorts, her moan is much louder, followed by a quiet:

"God, Sheldon."

She says his name the way she whimpered it in her sleep on New Year's Day, and the sound of it seems to slide from his ear down his spine, lodging itself under his stomach and making the whole lower half of his body pulse. He looks down to see that she has turned her face towards his, her cheeks flushed and her eyes looking particularly green and intense. He watches the way her whole body quakes as he drags a finger along the hem of her shorts, moving towards her inner thigh.

He is startled when she moans again and shifts her hips, moving so that his finger slides further under her shorts. He marvels at the feeling of her thin cotton panties under his fingers, but the sound of her gasp startles him. Quickly, he snatches his hand away, afraid that he has done something wrong.

His blood is pounding through his veins, his throat is suddenly exceedingly dry, and he is unsure whether it is because of his arousal or his fear that he has upset Penny.

"Sorry, sweetie," Penny whispers, and before he can tell her that she has done nothing to warrant an apology, she stands up from the couch on legs that visibly shake. "You want some ice cream?"

"Yes, please," he answers, quietly, because it is the only thing he can think of to say. Ice cream on his dry throat sounds exceedingly pleasant, even if everything else is confusing.

She smiles at him, and he thinks that perhaps he has done nothing wrong by touching her as he did. Instead, she was merely stopping a potentially sexually charged moment before it got out of hand, resulting in sexual activities. It occurs to him that social convention generally dictates that they formalize their romantic paradigm before moving forward with a sexual relationship. Knowing Penny, she will refuse to sign any kind of relationship contract, but they will at least have to agree on some basic parameters...such as where touching is acceptable. The thought of beginning such a conversation, though — actually, it is the thought of giving her an opportunity to tell him that she does not want to enter into a romantic relationship with him — is nerve-wracking.

She brings back two bowls of the brownie ice cream, and he immediately takes a large bite, letting it melt in his mouth.

"Thank you, Penny," he mumbles around a large piece of brownie, and she grins at him. He realizes that he is normally wary of eating ice cream that other have served — her fingers have almost certainly touched his ice cream — but this is Penny. Others have frequently pointed out that his mysophobia is often illogical, particularly as it applies to food, but it strikes him how completely illogical it would be to fear Penny touching his food given the alteration in their relationship paradigm. It does not occur to him that many people, from his mother to his best friends, would find this change of heart miraculous. To him, it seems simply logical.

He backs up the episode a few minutes while they eat, and when they are done, they settle back into each other, his arm once again wrapped around her shoulders.

She keeps talking during the episodes, pointing out that Kirk often does stupid things or trying to figure out why the botanist is driving the ship (why the helmsman is trained in botany, he corrects her), but he finds her comments much more endearing and less irritating than the kinds of comments generally offered by his friends during TV shows. And she's always open to his explanations. She even reaches over and pauses it when she has a question.

It is an extremely pleasant way to spend the day. They make it through eighteen of the twenty-nine episodes, even with a break for Saturday night Chinese food.

"Thank you for watching with me, Penny," he tells her quietly as he prepares to leave. The discs remain on Penny's coffee table, as they plan to complete the remaining episodes tomorrow after her lunch shift.

"Thank you for asking me, sweetie," she answers, smiling at him. He is exceptionally pleased that she has seemed to enjoy the show. And particularly that she likes Spock.

Before he can turn to open the door, Penny steps into his personal space and rises up on her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck. He reciprocates immediately, wrapping his arms around her waist and bending forward so that his nose is buried in her hair.

She breaks the hug in order to place a soft kiss on his cheek before wishing him a good night.

During his Saturday night masturbation, Penny once again plays a starring role. But instead of just watching her, this time he continues to explore her under her shorts, imagining what it might feel like to touch her and bring her to orgasm. He has a solid working knowledge of female physiology from his reading, but he would like to explore further — to actually examine the limits of his theoretical knowledge. It is the thought of touching her while she moans his name that sends him over the edge.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: This did _not_ want to come together, and I eventually decided to just post instead of worry more. Ugh.

**Thank ****you **everyone who has left reviews. Y'all are *super awesome* and make my day(s). Each of you wins an evening of cuddling on the couch with Sheldon (or Penny, I guess, if that's your thing) while watching the nerdy TV show of your choice. I'm hoping to reply to some reviews, soon, now that I have a bit of free time.

**Sunday****, ****January**** 4 7:32****pm**

They are finishing their third episode of _Star __Trek_ since Penny got home from her shift, together on her couch once more with his arm curled around her shoulders, her body curled into his. Penny holds his hand — stretched across his lap — between both of hers, and he finds that he is truly comfortable.

Added to his current comfort is the fact that he had a particularly productive morning in front of his white board. Despite thinking about Penny — her smile, her body, the warmth of her skin, her apparent willingness to touch him and allow herself to be touched by him, the possibilities of their future interactions — he has also found his scientific brain power undiminished. In fact, he impressed himself this afternoon with an intuitive leap that was later borne out by the math, solving a problem with which he had been fencing for some time. Leonard had assured him that his smugness was both unwarranted and unattractive, but Leonard has always been jealous of his success.

Still, even if it adds to his feeling of comfort and happiness, his scientific success is far from his mind with Penny next to him on the couch. She shifts against him slightly, and he becomes aware that his fingers are positioned near the neckline of her shirt, nearly touching the exposed skin of her upper chest. Almost unconsciously, he flexes his fingers, bringing his fingertips in contact with her skin. Comfort is quickly replaced by arousal at the vivid mental image of sliding his hand down and cupping her breast in the palm of his hand.

Penny's episode commentary, which has been coming in short bursts all evening, is noticeably absent when Bones picks on Spock in the last scene of the episode — she usually has something to say about that. His hand twitches against her sternum and he notes that her breathing has slowed, as though she is holding her breath, anticipating his next movement.

He has just shored up his resolve to touch her breast, as she clearly does not object, when his stomach growls loudly, reminding him that it is an hour past his usual dinner time. It cuts the sexual tension, and Penny giggles next to him and turns slightly — releasing his hand — in order to rub his belly playfully. It is both adorable and frustrating, and he shuts off the DVD player on the closing credits.

"I guess it's dinner time, huh?" She smiles up at him, but something in her eyes turns suddenly serious at the expression on his face. He holds her gaze as her hand slows its movements, coming to rest on the button at the waist of his jeans. She fingers the button absently before running her fingers along the waistline of his jeans, over his shirt. He swallows, almost overwhelmed at the arousal thrumming through his body as he wishes that she would slide her hand lower, that she would _touch_ him.

When she _does_ move her hand down, she doesn't even get to touch him before he groans her name in the heat of anticipation, and she pulls her hand away.

"Sorry, Sheldon," she whispers, her face flushed with either arousal or embarrassment.

He shakes his head, unable to find appropriate words but wishing that she would understand that he _wants_her touch. She certainly doesn't need to keep _apologizing_. He has theorized — while standing at his white board, theorizing simultaneously about dark matter — that Penny is concerned about his relative lack of sexual experience and has decided to put aside her sexually aggressive nature in order to ensure his comfort. It is the only way he can explain her willingness — her obvious pleasure, even — when he touches her, but her embarrassment when she instigates any such contact.

Because he does not feel himself capable of beginning a conversation with her about their changing relationship — because he is not yet fully confident that she will acquiesce to a monogamous romantic paradigm with him — he decides that he needs to instigate more obviously sexual physical contact. His stomach growls again, reminding him that it is, in fact, _past_ time for dinner. He will instigate such contact tomorrow, then.

Penny begins to pull away from him, to stand up from the couch, but he curls his hand around her shoulders in order to indicate that she should stay a moment longer. She takes the hint and lays her head on his chest, and he inhales a deep, shuddering breath to calm his arousal in preparation for dinner.

He finds himself breathing in the scent of her shampoo. Due to their close proximity over the past week, he has been vaguely aware of the fact that she has been using the many different scents in the gift baskets he purchased. But none have affected him as deeply as the green tea and mint she wore two days after Christmas, which made his head feel foggy and light. Today, however, her smell is completely intoxicating.

She smells sweet, like honeysuckle, and earthy like the cool soil in his Meemaw's garden, and fresh like cut grass. It's the smell of hot, spring afternoons spent in the shade of his Meemaw's backyard before she could afford air conditioning, and he inhales again, burying his nose more deeply in her hair to take in the combined smell of _home_ and _Penny_.

"It's called 'Spring,'" she supplies, and he is momentarily embarrassed to have been so obviously smelling her. But she turns her head and smiles up at him, and the smile makes everything alright. "I've been trying out a new one every day."

"This is my favorite so far." He immediately wishes that he had not said it — he certainly doesn't mean to let her know that he's been _smelling _her on a daily basis. But she just smiles again.

"I'll remember that," she promises, before moving to sit up. He lets her pull away this time, despite his disappointment, and she rises from the couch, stretching her limbs in a particularly alluring way.

"It's Indian night, right?"

"Yes," he agrees. "Leonard and I generally order Indian on Sunday nights because Raj rarely joins us." She nods.

"Would you mind if we went out instead of ordered in? Tandoori Palace is pretty nice." She looks...hopeful, he thinks, that he will do as she is asking.

"That would be acceptable," he answers. He agrees because he doesn't want to disappoint her, but also because he knows that going out with her — a _date_ — is the kind of social construct that he will be required to hold to within a romantic relationship paradigm. He needs to both adjust himself to the idea and show her his willingness to behave as a _boyfriend_. This is also the reason that he has exchanged his usual pants for jeans, worn tonight with his Green Lantern shirt.

"Cool!" He thinks Penny sounds genuinely happy as she ducks into her bedroom to change her shorts, but his doubts begin to surface as he rises to pace the room.

He has never been on a _date_ before, excepting the dinner with Lalita Gupta which he did not realize was a date until afterwards, but he understands that it is a platform for a man to impress a woman. By ensuring that Penny has a good time on a date with him, he also ensures that she will want to further embrace a romantic relationship paradigm with him. His primary concern, then, should be with making sure that Penny is pleased with their dinner plans.

"Does Indian food agree with you, Penny?" His voice wobbles, the question barely audible, as he walks back towards her bedroom, where the door is wedged open five or six centimeters thanks to a short, fluffy pink robe draped over the top. He isn't trying to look, exactly, but when she doesn't answer his question, he steps closer.

Through the crack of the door, he sees her walking out of the bathroom in only her pink cotton Hello Kitty undergarments. He is returned instantly to his aroused state by his view of her well-proportioned figure and the exposed skin on display. Intellectually, he knows that he's not seeing much of her that he hasn't seen before. The panties are cut like small shorts, and her bra covers at least as much as the bikini tops she prances around in each the summer. The expanse of bare torso, bare legs, bare shoulders is mostly skin he's seen before.

But he's never seen this much of her while holding knowledge about the way her skin feels under his fingertips. Or the sounds she makes when she enjoys his touch. And the intimacy of the moment, of the way she walks her fingers up her ribs mindlessly as she looks through her closet, leaves him breathless. He backs away from the door, aware that his face is flushed and his pulse racing.

He's barely managed to get himself under control when she steps out of the bedroom a moment later, wearing a simple, long sleeved green peasant dress that hits her just under her knees.

"Penny." He can't help the way her name exits his mouth. It's a forced exhalation of air, like being punched in the stomach. She smiles at him, and he thinks she's nervous. He thinks she might be as nervous as he is, which he doesn't understand, but it makes it easier for him to relax. It is an interesting reaction.

"You look quite lovely in that dress." The words don't sound right to his ears, but she blushes, and it's as though she's being lit up from within.

"Thank you, sweetie." Her reaction seems to indicate that not only is she pleased with the the compliment, but that she dressed specifically to elicit such a compliment.

He clears his throat, trying to get his full voice back. "Although my Sunday schedule calls for Indian food, it is not necessary that we hold to my schedule. What...what would you like?"

Penny looks shocked for a moment before taking a few steps towards him and laying her hand on his wrist gently.

"I like Indian night," she says quietly, stroking her fingertips up and down his exposed forearm. "I'd actually really like to go to Tandoori Palace."

Sheldon can only nod in return. He doesn't understand the lump in his throat, doesn't understand why Indian food should affect him emotionally, but the way Penny is looking up at him makes it hard to brush the emotion aside. After a long moment, she slides her hand into his own, and they leave for dinner.

His hand twitches around hers at the sight of apartment 4A. Leonard is absent for the night, though, having chosen to play "wingman" for Wolowitz, so Sheldon does not drop Penny's hand. Leonard is an unknown variable in his relationship with Penny, and one that he has largely ignored. Even now that he understands — at least somewhat — what the changes between himself and his neighbor mean, he has yet to fully think about Leonard's probable reaction. Although he is attempting to fill the role of Penny's boyfriend, the lack of any formal acknowledgement of their new relationship paradigm has kept him from thinking too hard about how others will react. It is highly probable, though, that his relationship with Penny will change his relationships with his other friends.

"Hey," Penny's voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and he is surprised to find that they are standing by the driver's side door of her car.

"Hello," he answers, his voice quiet as he looks down at her. She smiles.

"Whatcha thinking about?"

The answer to that question is, of course, not one he is prepared to discuss with Penny, so instead of trying, he leans down and initiates a hug, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and smiling at the feeling of her arms around his middle.

"That's a good thought," she whispers into his shoulder. When they part, she turns and unlocks her own door, unlocking his side before he rounds the car.

When she starts the car, her check engine light begins to immediately blink, and his eye twitches in time with it. He manages to contain his thought — he is aware that Penny will find it unpleasant, so he does try — for only two blocks.

"Penny, your check engine light is blinking."

"I know, sweetie," she sighs. "It'll be okay, though. We're not going to break down on our way to dinner."

"Yes," he agrees. "The odds of that happening on a drive so short are minimal. It is much more likely that your car will break down when you have driven, alone, much further from home, and that you will find yourself stranded." He thinks of Penny, stuck in Hollywood, sad after another bad audition, with no way to get home. The thought is surprisingly upsetting.

"That's what cell phones are for," she smiles at him.

"So you drive around a car in need of engine repair _planning_ on one day being in trouble because of it?"

"I don't have the money to fix it right now, Sheldon," she cuts in, sounding annoyed.

"But you must realize that waiting until the inevitable failure of your engine is likely to cost substantially more money than fixing the current problem."

"Yes," she answers quietly. "I understand that, Sheldon. I'm just hoping that by the time it breaks down, I'll have a little more saved up."

"If money is your problem, I can give you money," he answers, relieved that the answer is so simple.

"I'm not taking your money," she answers firmly, her voice raised just enough that he's a little scared. He can do nothing but stare at her as she continues on the short route to Tandoori Palace, having no words to offer to someone being so..._illogical_...about this issue.

"Penny," he finally says her name quietly, trying not to draw her ire. "That makes no sense." She narrows her eyes at him, and he flounders for words, trying to figure out what to say to make her see reason without being angry. "I just want to help."

"I know you do, sweetie," she answers after a long moment, pulling into the parking lot and grabbing a space before she finally turns to look at him. "I just...I can't take your money, Sheldon."

He wants to argue the point, considers the possibility of paying Leonard to take her car to be fixed without her consent. But more than anything, he wants to enjoy Penny's company and he wants her to enjoy his company. It is not in his nature to let issues drop, particularly when he knows he is on the correct side of the issue, but he slowly nods.

"Okay," he finally says, a little pained at letting her have the last word.

They each exit their car doors, and Sheldon worries over the probable awkwardness of their evening. He is surprised when she rounds the car very quickly and grabs his hand.

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she says, looking up at him. "I didn't mean to snap at you. I just...I don't like the idea of taking money from people, okay?"

He nods, squeezing her hand in his own. It's not okay, and he doesn't understand, but he understands enough to know that they cannot resolve this issue by simply fighting over her car.

They walk together into the restaurant and are quickly seated, and the difficult moment is buried underneath discussions about food. When their waiter, who introduces himself as Abdul, comes over, Sheldon begins to place their order but is halted by Penny's frown, indicating that he has said something inappropriate. The force of her displeasure strikes him silent, and she cuts in and places their order, getting every detail perfect.

He has never really considered his lack of interpersonal skills to be a failing. Others have pointed it out to him as such, but it has always struck him as unnecessary to worry about his interactions with lesser minds. Penny's frown, though, at what she would no doubt consider rudeness to their waiter, makes his stomach churn with the fear that she thinks poorly of him. The way he treats others, he realizes, is some sort of cue to her about how he will treat her, and even though the whole idea is flagrantly false because Penny is _Penny_ and this waiter is _nobody_, he attempts the correct affect.

It is, perhaps, not exactly the change of personality that his mother has been praying for his whole life, but he at smiles at the waiter — Abdul — as he leaves the table.

Once Abdul is gone, though, silence stretches out awkwardly between them. No topics of conversation beyond their argument in the car come readily to mind. The thought of formalizing their relationship is difficult; he cannot begin such a discussion, and particularly not when she is upset. Instead, he watches her, the way her eyes search around the restaurant, the way her fingers drum on the white table cloth. She is slowly becoming more and more nervous, he realizes.

"Are you going to ask me to take your money again?" She finally asks.

"Will it change your mind?" He answers. She shakes her head looking down at the table. "Will you explain to me why you will not accept my help?"

"Sheldon...I know you mean well," she says, seemingly dodging his question, "but it's...complicated." He blinks at her answer, cocking his head to the side as he attempts to pin down her expression. He cannot.

"We are under no time constraints that I am aware of," he answers. She smiles at that, and shakes her head.

"You know I have a brother?"

"Yes," he answers. "But you've only ever mentioned him once."

He recalls her talking about her sister on several occasions, four years older and divorced with two children, but her brother has never been a topic of conversation.

"Well, his name is Billy. He's twelve years older. My mom got pregnant with him in high school. He was the reason my parents got married in the first place, I think."

"My parents were married under similar circumstances," he says quietly. She looks up at him, surprised. "My mother's fanatical religious devotion did not come until later."

"Ah. Well, Billy was already out of the house when I was born. He was sent to a kind of boarding school for...difficult kids. Thing is...the school was really expensive, and my parents needed help in order to keep the farm."

"So they got a loan," Sheldon says, some of the puzzle making a little bit of sense.

"From my mom's sister and her husband. They came around every week, and they wanted a say in how the farm was run. My aunt would always tell us that they were just 'worried about their investment.' They always fought with my dad, and made my parents fight. And when my dad finally paid off the loan, they were never allowed to visit."

"And you fear that taking a loan from a friend will result in similar circumstances."

"At the very least, I worry things would be uncomfortable, sweetie," she tells him.

"May I offer two counterpoints, Penny?"

"If you need to," she answers, sounding annoyed.

"In the first place, you have unfairly extrapolated from this single instance."

"Because sometimes people help other people out, and they aren't mean or petty or 'worried about their investments'?" The words are dripping with sarcasm, and Sheldon bristles.

"Yes, in fact!" His accent twangs a little, both from emotion and from thinking about home. "When my Peepaw died, my Meemaw would have lost her house had her neighbors not each given her help in the form of both monetary loans and services. And no one ever worried about their investments. She paid back what she could, in both money and her own goods and services, but the point was that her neighbors wanted to help her because she was nice and because helping her was more important than worrying about money."

Penny smiles brightly at the story.

"That's really sweet, Sheldon," she tells him. "Your Meemaw must be really special for her neighbors to all care about her so much."

"Of course my Meemaw is special," he replies, offended that anyone could think otherwise for even a moment. "But that is not the point," he finally remembers.

"And what's the point?" Penny asks, smiling at him.

"The point is that you should accept my money because I am not worried about an investment. I merely want to help."

"But Sheldon," she says, her voice quiet, "I don't know when I'd be able to pay you back, and..."

"That brings me to the second counterpoint," he cuts her off. "I did not offer to _loan_ you the money. I offered to _give_ you the money." He honestly hopes that this will make things better. After all, if there's no need to pay back the money, then all of Penny's worries will go away.

He can't read the look on Penny's face, and her reply is cut off when Abdul returns with their food. They stare at each other awkwardly as their food is laid out: fragrant rice, naan, tandoori shrimp, and Sheldon's favorite, kadhai paneer. When they are alone again, they both stare at the food between them.

"I really can't take your money, Sheldon," she finally answers. "Especially if you're just going to give it to me."

"Well why not?" He's always heard men huff something about _women_ and their irrationality, but he's never before understood how irrational women apparently are.

"Do you remember my friend Christy?" She asks, keeping her eyes trained on the table.

"The 'Whore of Omaha'?" It is in fact only in the context of talking about Christy that Penny had ever previously mentioned her brother, but since she does not seem to recall that fact, he does not bring it up.

"That's the one," she answers, rolling her eyes.

"I fail to see what she could have to do with anything," he answers, cocking his head to the side. She looks up at him, confused, before she finally smiles.

"No, you wouldn't, I guess." There's a long pause before she continues. "Christy would get close to a guy, and use sex as a way to get him to buy her things."

"Yes, I recall. This is part of the reason that the epithet applies to her so well."

"Sheldon...I just..."

"You have an irrational fear that if you take money from me, you will be behaving like your friend." She glares at him. "It _is_ irrational, Penny, as you are far from a...a..._whore_." He whispers the last word, remembering that it is, in fact, a dirty word.

"You're the one who asked for my expertise in breaking up with someone because of the _man __after __man_ leaving my apartment." She narrows her eyes at him, though her lips are curved slightly upwards, and he blushes.

"Surely you realize that at the time I found myself trapped in an unwanted relationship, and Leonard has certainly never broken up with someone." His eyes meet hers, suddenly adamant. "Penny, you are not...like _her_."

"I know, Sheldon," she says, "but I already owe you — you and Leonard, I mean — so much, and I..."

"You owe us nothing," he cuts her off.

"Yes, I do," she replies. "And even if it's not conscious, Leonard...Leonard does think I owe him..."

He feels anger at that. At the thought that Leonard _does_ in fact, seem to think that Penny owes him. At the thought that he has been so obvious about it that Penny can tell. And at the thought that Leonard will be angry about this changing relationship not because Leonard loves Penny, but because he feels that he is owed something by Penny.

"Hey," she calls him out of his thoughts, and he releases the tension that had been pulling his mouth into a frown. "How about I promise I'll think about it, and we just eat and talk about something else?"

"I..." He had hoped to change her mind, but he keeps coming back to the promise he made to himself last week — always be considerate of Penny's feelings. So he is. "Very well. As long as you understand that you would be in no way indebted to me." She nods. "And that my desire to help you fix your car is motivated largely by self interest."

"So I can drive you to the comic book store?" There's a wry grin on her face that he returns.

"Partly that, I suppose," he answers. "Primarily because I do not like the thought of you stranded somewhere." She holds his gaze, once again searching for something in his eyes before she finally smiles.

"I'll keep that in mind, sweetie."

And like that, the discussion is tabled. She reaches across the table to serve herself, so he begins to do the same.

"Tell me more about your family, Sheldon," she says as she stabs a piece of paneer and brings it to her mouth.

And so the dinner conversation stretches on, discussing family histories that he has never shared with anyone else. No one has ever cared to hear about his family before, and he is surprised at how many similar experiences they have shared as children.

They exchange hunting stories — Penny enjoyed hunting because it was one of the few ways she and her father bonded; Sheldon disliked it for more or less the same reason, though he was always good at it. They swap sibling stories — Penny and her sister have a difficult relationship and never got to know her older brother well; she's already aware of his relationship with Missy, and he assures her that she isn't missing out much on big brothers. They swap parent stories — Penny's parents fought frequently but never separated; his own parents' marriage fell apart when Sheldon was only 8.

He tells her about the divorce, about his mother's descent into religious fervor. She tells him about her brother's arrest record.

By the time their plates are scraped clean — which takes some time, due to the talking — it is well after ten o'clock. He pays for their meal, waving away her proffered cash with an eyeroll, and they walk back to her car holding hands. He bites his tongue on the way home and avoids saying anything about her check engine light.

"Thank you for your company, Penny," he tells her quietly when they reach her door.

"Thank you for dinner, sweetie," she replies, smiling. Moving slowly, she rises up on her toes to place a kiss on his cheek.

He glances across the hall to his door and finds that he does not want to go home, yet. Penny seems to sense his trepidation.

"Hey," she offers, "you don't have work in the morning and neither do I. Want to stay up and finish season 1 of _Star__Trek_?"

"Yes," he answers almost too quickly, too eagerly. She just smiles and pulls him into her apartment. He finds that his place on her couch feels more and more comfortable, more like _his __spot_, and theorizes that actually, any spot in which Penny is tucked under his arm would feel like home.

[** The next 5 chapters are already fully written...they just need some revision. So they should be up quickly and also hopefully be better than this one. =) **]


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Thank you *so* much for reviews. You guys make me so happy. =)

Okay. **M** **rating is in effect starting** **now**, even though this chapter is tame compared to what's coming. It just gets worse from here on out (or better, I guess, if you think sex, romance, and emotional development go rather well together), and if that bothers you, you need to stop reading now. But if it doesn't bother you, hopefully we got here *just* slowly enough that it all...works. Maybe?

**Monday****, ****January**** 5 8:23****pm**

Kevin, the new busboy, asks her out on his third day. He's charming and cute and tan and blond, and two weeks ago she would have said 'yes' without a second thought. But she's been spending time with Sheldon, and even if she doesn't quite know what it means, yet, she knows she can't go out on a date with someone else.

If she had been seeing anyone else for two weeks with no relationship talk — with or without sex — she would have just accepted the date. Her experiences have taught her to never assume that a guy wants a relationship, and that mindset has served her well. It's kept her from getting her heart trampled on too much, at any rate.

Except...it's Sheldon. It's Sheldon who has been actively cuddling with her on the couch; Sheldon who has tentatively touched her with his big hands and long, tapered fingers; Sheldon who has started wearing jeans, maybe just for her; Sheldon who so earnestly wanted to share his favorite show; Sheldon who wants to help her fix her car with no strings attached, just because he likes her; Sheldon who has been so gentle and sweetly awkward.

Sheldon who is a pain in the ass, anal retentive, slightly crazy, and who has willingly changed his dinner schedule to be around her.

So, turning Kevin down is just a blip on her radar, but the reasoning behind it — acknowledging to herself that she is turning down an objectively hot guy because she thinks she's falling for Dr. Sheldon Cooper — is slightly terrifying. She sort of hates herself for not having forced him to have _the __talk_, yet, but she's scared. And she's not even sure how to start _the __talk_ with a guy who's probably never been in a relationship before. Who doesn't know what _the __talk_ is. Who might not even understand what he's been doing. Who might not even be interested in sex. (_Yeah __right_, some part of her brain sneers at her.)

Admittedly, it seems like she doesn't actually need to worry about the sex part. She kind of thinks that Sheldon not only has a totally normal, healthy _deal_, but that he wants an actual relationship with her. It's kind of really sweet.

Still, though, the thought of even bringing it up in conversation stops her cold. She's terrified that if she tries to put a label on it, he'll freak out and realize that tonight is supposed to be Thai night, and they've just eaten spaghetti _that __she __cooked_ (and she promised to get hot dogs next time). He'll realize that what they're doing doesn't fit into his usual schedule and he might want to stop. And that would be... Well, she doesn't want it to stop.

So, once again, she ignores the need to start _the__talk_ and lets him put in the first disc of season 2 of _Star __Trek__._ He's said something about the difference between production order and airing order in explaining why they aren't watching in order, and she finds his encyclopedic knowledge pretty cute even if she doesn't care _that _much. Anyways, the show is actually really adorable, and even if she likes it for different reasons than he does, that's just fine. She's totally looking forward to the movie, too, and not just because all the guys are gorgeous.

She sits down on the couch, and when he turns from the DVD player he looks momentarily nervous before she beckons him to join her. It's so strange, and kind of charming, to be with someone who still has that nervous edge, who doesn't just assume anything. After a moment, though, he relaxes next to her, wrapping his right arm around her shoulders, and she reaches across his body for his left hand.

As the episode starts, she tries to ignore her thoughts about _the __talk_ and instead traces the lines on his palm with her index finger. She's had her palm read before, but she's never paid close enough attention to be able to read his. It's a shame because she could use some kind of...sign. There have been enough psychics in Penny's past that she knows that a Taurus and a Sagittarius won't have an easy relationship, and lots of good psychics have actually warned her away from Tauruses.

It's not like she takes astrology totally _literally_ or anything, but it's good at predicting behavior patterns, and Sheldon is, really, a typical Taurus. Such a loner, so concerned with work, pretty introverted. He's her opposite in a lot of ways, and they'll have to really stretch their comfort zones for each other if they're going to make a relationship work. But then, he's been showing her all weekend that he's willing to do exactly that. It means a lot, actually, that he has already stretched himself as much as he has. And she thinks, maybe, as long as he's willing to break his routines sometimes for her, she can be willing to go along with most of them for him. And maybe, possibly, if they meet each other halfway, it could be really great.

The thought makes her smile, and she grasps his hand tightly between her own as she turns her full attention towards the episode. It's mostly about Spock, which generally makes her pay attention.

"What's wrong with him?" She asks Sheldon, who shoots her a wry grin and raises his eyebrow at her. He won't answer her, partly because he won't tell her the plot but mostly because he won't talk unless he pauses it, even if he _does_ put up with her talking during the episodes. She thinks he kind of likes her talking during the episodes, even though he usually _shushes_ people for doing the same. It makes her smile. She can't help a few more comments wondering at how _illogical_ it is for Spock not to tell Kirk what's going on. She just gets another eyebrow. It's pretty cute.

"Is Spock _horny_?" She asks, as Kirk and Spock start talking about _biology_. It's suddenly even more fascinating. She glances up at Sheldon's reddened cheeks and has to stifle a laugh. It's too good: horny Spock, embarrassed Sheldon. In deference to the fact that he seems uncomfortable, she keeps her mouth shut and watches the episode silently, way too intrigued by the idea of horny Spock.

It barely even registers when Sheldon gently pulls his hand out of hers.

She does notice, though, when that hand lands on her thigh, working up and down in soft strokes that drive her slightly crazy. He's done this before, touched her like this, and for the past two days, the image of him continuing — of his long fingers moving inside of her — has consumed her thoughts more than is strictly healthy.

The feel of his cool hand on her skin — not familiar by any means, still new and terribly exciting — makes her shiver and sigh his name softly. When she looks up, though, he is staring ahead at the television, his face infuriatingly stoic, save for an occasional twitch.

She watches the concentration on his face as his hand moves, a teasing trail up and down her thigh, moving up to the hem of her shorts with more purpose than she would have given him credit for. She's not going to force the situation, not at all, but she gives him some gentle encouragement by hooking her leg over his and relaxing into his touch.

She's more than a little shocked when his hand grips her thigh at the same moment that the arm around her shoulders hauls her closer, encouraging her to sit on his lap. Although his gaze stays on the television, she can tell that he's nervous by the dry swallow and the twitch of his eye. So she goes with it, lets him pull her onto his lap with his hands — big hands — gripping her thighs. The sight of his hands on her sends a shiver down her spine, and she can feel him groan behind her as she shifts against him, bringing her instant awareness of his erection, which is clearly tucked up into the waist of his underwear.

As she melts on his lap, he keeps his eyes glued to the television, even if she's sure he's stopped watching, too.

Moving with careful, slow strokes that belie the disinterested mask he keeps on his face, the fingers of Sheldon's right hand begin to quest inwards, touching the hot skin between her thighs that's just barely covered by her shorts. The ghost of his fingertips, moving almost where she wants them and then away is equal parts erotic and frustrating, and every time his fingers dip under the hem of her shorts, she moans. She loses track of time, of the television, of Sheldon's face, of the way she's sitting on his lap. When he finally brushes his fingertips over the crotch of her panties, grazing her swollen clit through the material, she gasps his name loudly and throws her head back.

From where she's perched, her reclined head rests on his shoulder, and when he dips his head down, his lips meet her forehead. Everything is fuzzy as she stays strained in this position; the feel of his fingernail barely grazing her as it moves back and forth over the silky nylon covering her mound is maddening, and she can't help the breathy moans that fall from her lips.

"Penny." He dips his head further, so his mouth is right at her ear, and exhales a soft breath as he gently drags his fingernail across her covered clit.

"Yesssss," she hisses out, her answer lost in a moan. He adjusts himself behind her, gripping her waist with his left arm and pulling her backwards so that she can feel his erection against her rear. She doesn't think she's ever been this turned on, and she must say something to that effect out loud, because Sheldon groans softly in her ear and answers with a quiet, 'Neither have I.'

"Penny," he whispers her name again after a moment, his lips brushing her ear. "I do not understand the parameters of our relationship."

"Huh?" She practically moans her question as he pants quiet breaths in her ear.

"I do not know if what I am doing is expected or correct in this situation, or what it means for future interactions between us." His voice is gruff and deep and sexy, but with a familiar note of vulnerability that makes Penny want to kiss him wildly and tuck him into bed at the same moment.

"I don't..." He grazes her clit through her panties again and she she cuts herself off, moaning, "Oh God, Sheldon." His breathing is growing more ragged by the second, and the sound of it next to her ear has her whole neck broken out in goosebumps. She slides herself back against his erection, once, enjoying the way he groans. "I don't...know...either." Somehow she gets the words out between moans and gasps for air.

"But you..." He pauses to groan as she shifts herself back against him again, sliding his erection against her butt. "You do not wish to stop?"

"God no," she whispers, and they both moan together as the fingers of Sheldon's right hand snake into the side of her panties to touch the wet flesh underneath. His touch makes her gasp, and she wraps her calves around the outside of his legs, opening herself up to him to be best of her ability. He touches her tentatively at first, stroking up, finding her clitoris before stroking downwards. It feels like he's actively learning her, mapping her, maybe, and the thought of it is hotter than it probably should be. His perfectly groomed index finger slides inside of her, soon followed by his middle finger, and the slight stretch of it makes her gasp. Penny tilts her head and twists her neck so she can look into his eyes.

If he were any other guy — and that's a big 'if,' because she can't remember the last guy that fingered her on the couch while fully dressed — she would kiss him right now. But it's Sheldon, and she has a worry that he might not like kissing, that it might be too messy, too germy, so instead she slides a hand up around his neck, forcing him to hold her eyes as she moves her butt against his erection, drawing a strangled groan from his open mouth. She watches his expression as he regroups, moving his fingers inside of her almost tentatively, a look of concentration written across his face — it's not clear whether he's trying to remember something or just paying very close attention to his actions.

It quickly becomes clear that it's both — she gasps loudly and throws her head back when he touches her g-spot just right, and his face melts into smug grin for a moment before he begins to focus his movements perfectly, sliding and rubbing in a pattern that most men never find. Almost too quickly, she feels the familiar warmth building, trickling down towards her toes and shooting up her spine, and she can't hold back the need to move against him.

He grunts, whether at the feeling of her moving against his erection or losing his rhythm she doesn't know, and he shocks her by sliding his fingers out of her and instead plunging his hand into the waistband of her shorts and under her panties.

"Penny," he moans her name, stretching out the first syllable desperately. He takes a moment to locate her clitoris before he begins to stroke it, more slowly than she'd like. He varies the pressure, pattern, and speed for a few moments, until she shudders at the feeling of his index and middle finger squeezing while making rapid circles. Another smug grin, and he begins to move his fingers in earnest, even as his left arm circles her waist, holding her steady as his hips thrust against her.

He breathes heavily against her ear as he moves his hips against her, and she can't help the moans that slip out at the feel of him behind her or the feel of his fingers working against her. The spreading warmth caused by the friction of his jeans against her velor shorts makes everything feel real, makes every sensation hit harder.

It occurs to Penny's foggy brain, however briefly in her race towards orgasm, that Sheldon is disturbingly good at this, and then she can't think about anything as she climaxes, calling out his name loudly. In her frenzied state, she can barely make out the way that Sheldon strains underneath her, his body going rigid as he reaches his own completion.

He's gripping her hard, both arms now circled around her waist, as they catch their breaths. Her heart is still beating too quickly when she manages to speak.

"Where the hell did you learn to do that?" She twists her neck back so she can see his face again and is shocked by the typically masculine, relaxed, self-satisfied grin playing over his lips. Some part of her thinks that maybe she shouldn't be surprised, that Sheldon does have a giant ego anyways, but it's still shocking to be here with him this way, and to see him react like any man would. Except that she's never been with a man that touched her quite like that, exploratory turned expert.

"I am a physicist, Penny." He raises his eyebrow at her knowingly. "I have a working knowledge of the entire universe and everything it contains." He's fed her this line before, and she's sure he'll do it again, but this is the first time she's ever believed it, and the first time it's ever sounded...erotic.

"Sheldon." She shakes her head. Her brain hasn't quite caught up with everything that's just happened. "It's like you had my instruction manual." He stares at her for a moment, and she can almost imagine his brain processing her words and locating the humorous undercurrent. He lets out his weird little laugh, and it actually sounds ridiculously endearing. She grins.

"I wouldn't mind having a copy of that." He's smiling at her, and...flirting? And she just had a pretty fantastic orgasm. It's surreal, but wonderful. "Really, Penny. All one needs is a working knowledge of human anatomy." She nods, taking in the smug grin on his face as he says it.

"So, you've never done that before?" He looks into her face for a long moment, and she wonders if he's trying to figure out if she's teasing him or using sarcasm. She can see it in his eyes when he decides she's being sincere.

"No." He shakes his head in the negative. "I've never...wanted...someone else like this."

She has to force herself not to kiss him. Instead, she grasps his left hand and brings it to her lips, dropping kisses on his palm as she keeps her eyes locked on his. He doesn't seem to mind, and she thinks she's going to have to bring up kissing next. Well, kissing and their whole relationship status.

They take turns in the bathroom cleaning up, and then she snuggles into his chest as they re-watch "Amok Time" before he goes home to shower and get to bed.

She really hopes he's not just going through Pon Farr.

[He's totally not just going through Pon Farr. =p Next time: Sheldon and Penny take another step towards emotional intimacy and a larger one towards physical intimacy.]


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Not sure I'm totally happy with this one, but I promised myself I would post on Wednesdays and Saturdays in order to pace myself. I'm an academic...I like schedules and due dates, I guess. Also, this site is dropping my em-dashes today. Sorry for any weirdness that causes (I think I've caught it all, though). I hope that hasn't been happening a lot in previous chapters.

Thank you for reviews. You guys are frakking awesome.

**Tuesday January 6th 9:43pm**

He's nervous when he knocks on her door the next night. It's late; her shift hadn't ended until 9, and even though he saw her briefly for his cheeseburger, he's spent most of the evening with Leonard, who brought up the fact that he's been spending a lot of time with Penny. Sheldon had nodded, told him about showing her _Star Trek_, and Leonard had smiled patronizingly. Sheldon could hear the condescension in his voice when Leonard told him how that was _nice_, and almost wanted to tell his friend what else he had done with Penny last night.

How she had panted into his ear, her hot, moist breath making him crazy as she squirmed on his lap. How his fingers had been _inside_ of her, how she was so wet and and almost unbearably hot. How Masters Johnson and Kinsey, even a carefully hoarded edition of the _Kama Sutra_, had provided more than adequate anatomical information and suggestions for motions to make with his fingers, but how reading the texts had failed to capture the immense emotional satisfaction of bringing someone to orgasm. The memories had given him an erection, but Leonard had gone into his room and shut the door before the physical effects became obvious.

So standing in front of Penny's door, his prolonged knock giving him time to think about all of this, he knows he needs to talk to her about what their relationship is, and what they'll tell everyone about it. Part of him knows that he didn't tell Leonard because he, specifically, will have problems with it. Sheldon is aware of social norms that dictate that friends not date the lover, present or former, of other friends, but one failed date with Penny hardly makes her Leonard's lover. Surely Sheldon has laid a better claim to Penny as his lover than Leonard ever did. He knows that the flawless logic of his argument will be lost on Leonard, though, and there's a heaviness deep in his stomach resulting from worries over the possible fallout. To ease his worries, he tells himself repeatedly that Leonard has dated other women since his failed date with Penny; Leonard will have to get over it. It almost works.

Despite his worries over Leonard, though, his primary concern is still the conversation he and Penny need to have. He's been operating for three days as though Penny is his girlfriend, and he did things to her last night that he feels fairly certain make them officially 'dating.' The problem is that he's not sure she knows it, yet. It's this conversation that's really wracking his nerves, and he's actually quite pleased when she opens the door and he can read the same level of nerves in her facial expression.

"Hi," she greets him, her smile wide as her eyes flicker across his face. She always seems to be searching for something when she looks at him lately, and it makes him nervous. But then, she always seems to find what she's searching for, which is gratifying.

"Penny." He smiles around her name, smiles wider because she blushes, and invites himself inside because she's standing at the door in her uniform, blushing and staring at him.

Together, they move towards the couch, and he takes his regular seat while she stays standing, biting her lip and looking around the room nervously.

"Penny?" He says her name quietly, drawing her attention and earning him a bright smile that fades after a moment, leaving her looking nervous again.

"I didn't get a chance to change out of my uniform yet," she says quietly, and he nods because that fact is quite obvious.

"Would you like to change?"

"Yes," she answers, looking towards her bedroom. "But maybe in a minute. I just..." She swallows, eyes searching his face again before she moves to sit down next to him. He stops her by reaching forward and grasping her hips, pulling her into his lap and chuckling at the high pitched giggle that explodes out of her mouth. She grins up at him, shaking her head before arranging herself so that her legs are stretched out across the couch.

From this close, he can make out the wet sheen of saliva on her lips when she licks them nervously, and it reminds him that they didn't kiss last night. He's not quite sure how to feel about that.

Mostly, he's not sure how to interpret the bizarre signals his brain has been feeding him that he _should_ kiss her. He's always assumed kissing to be nothing more than a fairly unhygienic social custom (certainly he's never experienced a kiss that wasn't a non-optional convention of a familial relationship paradigm), but some long suppressed instinct wants him to press his lips to hers, to suck her lower lip between his, to slide his tongue against hers. His brain tells him that it's worth the exposure to her microbes. His brain tells him that he should _want_ her microbes. And as strange as it is, his brain generally doesn't steer him wrong.

He's read about kissing in the same books where he's read about sexual relations, although until last night it had never occurred to him that he would want to do it. But, good God, he wants to do it. It feels as though something has been pulled to the breaking point inside of him this week; as though once he stopped ignoring the attraction he feels to Penny, he can't control the thoughts and actions associated with that attraction.

Thoughts of their activities the previous night flood his mind, and the sudden rush of blood to his already erect penis pulls his brain from his thoughts; he realizes that he has been staring at Penny's mouth. She's breathing through her parted lips, her eyes hooded as she stares back at him, and this time she's not searching. This time she's asking for something. He thinks that she wants him to kiss her.

He feels a sudden wave of panic mixed with a stab of desire, but before he can pick through his feelings about kissing her, her expression changes. Once again, she looks terribly nervous, and he watches her take a deep breath before speaking.

"Sheldon," she whispers, and one hand slides from her lap up to gently cup his cheek for a moment before sliding down his chest and back to her lap. "We need to talk, sweetie."

He nods because it's true: they need to talk. But he's also suddenly terrified. As long as they don't talk about this, after all, she doesn't have the chance to tell him that she doesn't want to continue exploring this shift in their relationship paradigm.

"The new busboy asked me out on a date yesterday." The blood pulsing through his genitalia seems to dissipate, and the fear spreads, replacing the pleasant tightness below his stomach with painful knots. He unconsciously tightens his hands where they're still clutching her hips. Leonard and Howard had pointed out the new employee tonight; he's the typical type of neanderthal that Penny has previously dated. And Sheldon hasn't told Penny that their paradigm has shifted. The thought of giving up Penny makes him nauseated. "I said no," she continues, quietly.

He squeezes his eyes closed at this statement and takes in another breath. When he opens his eyes again, needing to see her face even if he is terrible at interpreting the complex emotions sure to be displayed there, he sees that her gaze is directed at her lap.

"I told him I've been seeing someone." For a fraction of a second, the fear returns (he wonders who this other person is), and then Penny glances up at him and he exhales the tension in one long breath.

"Good," he replies. Her sideways glance becomes more intense and she quickly shifts on his lap. Now she's straddling him, her face inches from his own, and once again she's searching his eyes. He wonders what she wants to see and how he can make sure she sees it, but then she smiles, and the tension leaves her shoulders. He wants to ask her if this means that their new paradigm is officially categorized as romantic, as sexual, now. Before he gets the chance, she's talking again, her mind having seemingly changed directions.

"I read an article today." Penny announces the words boldly, and he cocks his head to the side in interest, even though he's not sure where this is going and even though the article was most likely drivel from one of her magazines. "It was about kissing." He inhales sharply, and she smiles. Propped up on her knees, she's taller than he is, but as she watches him, she sinks down so that she's pressed more tightly against him, and they're more or less face to face.

"Kissing?" The word comes out as a squeak when she presses against him just right, and the erection that had lost its supply of blood is once again engorged.

"Yeah." She nods and watches him blush. He's fairly certain that she can feel what her position has done to him. "You see, kissing evolved in most human cultures for a reason." He nods, actually interested in what she has to say. "The biggest thing, I think, is that the two people kissing share lots of bacteria and germs and stuff, but what they're doing is building their immune systems, especially towards each other."

"So, kissing functions as a form of inoculation?"

"I guess. It will strengthen your...a person's immune system." And suddenly he understands what she's doing; it sets off the now-familiar thrum of blood pulsing in his genitals, makes something below his stomach tighten and tingle. She wants to kiss him, which he had already guessed, but more than that, she's thought about it, thought about his possible discomfort, considered the exact reasons for his possible discomfort, done research to alleviate this discomfort. She's constructing an argument that they should kiss, and it is an excellent argument, designed especially for him. If he had any lingering doubts about kissing, they're gone. He slides his hands up her back, into her hair, and angles his neck in order to brush his lips against hers.

The first touch of her lips on his is a small spark, so he does it again, repeating the tiny kisses, their lips just barely open, several more times. Each time, the spark is bigger, brighter, and he never knew that merely touching lips could produce such a feeling.

"Kissing also lowers the level of this bad hormone, cortisol, and reduces stress," she whispers in between the brief meetings of their lips, and he moans, leaving his lips against hers for longer. She opens her mouth slightly and sucks his lower lip inside.

"Good Lord, Penny," he whispers into her mouth before copying her move, and pulling her lower lip between his. It's slow, incredibly, deliciously slow, and he can't process the combined feeling of her body pressed against his and her lips wrapped around his own, stimulating nerves he was hardly aware of.

"It also releases chemicals that make you feel good," she whispers against his mouth, letting her tongue brush over his lower lip. "Like oxycontin."

"It's oxytocin," he groans against her lips, returning her soft lick with his own. It does not occur to him to mock her or mention that mistaking oxycontin for oxytocin is an inexcusable, silly error.

"It helps lower blood pressure." Her last word comes out as a muffled moan as his tongue slips into her mouth while his fingers massage her scalp slowly. Her tongue is soft but firm, and he can taste the lingering mint of mouthwash, and he melts into her, into a gentle give and take.

"Did you know," he mumbles his own fact against her lips, "that men and women involved in monogamous couplings who kiss every day tend to outlive their uncoupled counterparts by approximately five years?" This time, she moans and runs her fingernails from his shoulders up the back of his neck, stroking her fingers through his hair as she chases his tongue back into his mouth.

And it's nothing like he thought it would be. Intellectually, he's always known that there are very sensitive nerve endings in the lips and tongue, that mammals tend to be orally fixated for a reason. But feeling her lower lip caught between his, feeling her tongue so soft against his, it defies words. Her mouth is slow and languid underneath his, as though she's in no rush to do anything but taste him, and he relaxes into it. There's no way to adequately describe the sensations, no way to quantify this experience, so he gives himself over.

His hands drift from her hair down her back, caressing her as they move, and when he reaches her hips, he pulls her against him, fitting his prominent erection just at the juncture of her thighs. Her fingers grip at his hair, and she groans against him. When she pulls away, her eyes look glazed over, the half-sleepy expression back, and she smiles at him. Slowly, she walks her fingers down his chest, as though she's afraid of spooking him, but when she reaches the hem of his shirts, she grips them both and yanks upwards.

He has to help her get them over his head, and when she pulls back to look at him, his shirts balled up in her hands, she smiles lazily and tosses them onto the other side of the couch. He cringes and contemplates reaching over to fold them, but she lowers her lips to his neck, and his eyes slide involuntarily shut. As her hands wander over his chest, her lips begin a soft trail from his ear down to his shoulder, and he grunts in frustration because it's too soft. And then he's grasping her hips and bucking against her as her lips get firmer and her teeth begin to nip at his neck.

"Penny," he grunts her name, but it becomes a gasp as she bites his neck, sending a shock of pleasure down his spine.

It occurs to him, after a moment of losing his thoughts completely, that if he is without a shirt, it is only equitable that she be in the same state. So he pushes her back gently, and before she can object, he pulls the yellow sweater vest over her head, laying it over the back of the couch before beginning to work the tiny buttons of her shirt out of their holes. When he finishes and she's shrugged out of her shirt, all he can do is stare at her breasts, cupped in ivory lace. Slowly, he lowers his face so that his cheek rests gently against the smooth, exposed skin between her breasts, and he inhales, shuddering at the way that the scent of her is strongest in this location.

"It's Jasmine Vanilla," she whispers, and he blushes because she caught him smelling her again, and he bought her this fragrance, housed in a wicker basket with white mesh wrapped around it.

"I sometimes imagine you applying the lotions that I purchased." His hands slide from where they've been resting at her waist up her torso, taking in every inch of exposed skin. "Do you ever think about me when you're putting it here?" And his hands slide up to cup her breasts through her bra. He can feel her nipples, hard under the lace, and the vision of her raised on her knees, shirt off, head thrown back is the most erotic thing he's ever seen.

"Yes," she murmurs, and he turns his head so he can kiss the naked skin above her bra. "I imagined you rubbing it into my skin this morning," she whispers, "and then you rubbed lower..." She blushes, and his brain takes a moment to conjure the image of Penny masturbating to the memory of last night.

"Penny." Her name is practically a growl, an exhalation of his suddenly escalated hunger for her.

And it feels like a dam has broken because her mouth is back on his, and it's not slow this time, it's fast and hard. It's his first taste of losing control, and his fingers dig into her hips as his mouth moves under hers, no longer a playful give and take but a quest for some elusive goal. He can't seem to pull away even though he desperately needs to breathe, particularly when her teeth close over his lower lip and the gentle bite sends a jolt of pleasure through his body.

When he finally pulls away to suck in air, she rises off of his lap. He's about to protest; he's about to _beg_ her to _please_ come back, when she reaches behind her back and unhooks the bra, leaving her breasts exposed. His mouth falls open because he can't help it; because he's not seen a pair of breasts nude, in person; because they're perfect and round and full and pulled to tight pink peaks and just better than any fantasy image he has constructed.

He wants her. He wants to touch her, to kiss her, to fuck her, to worship her, to _own_ her, and he's afraid for a moment that he's not remotely in control of himself, so his eyes snap closed as he gasps in a few shuddering breaths. The sudden hit of oxygen to his brain makes him realize that he hadn't taken a breath since he saw her breasts, and the memory of them makes his eyes snap back open because he can't keep his eyes closed when he could be looking at her breasts.

But he doesn't see her breasts when he opens his eyes. She's kneeling in front of him, now, and her fingers begin to work at the buckle on his pants. Once again he's slammed by the feeling that he's totally out of control.

Some part of his brain is telling him to stop this, not because he doesn't want it but because he _does_. He wants it all, and he finds that it is terrifying to want something this much. There's a sense of powerlessness, of vulnerability, in giving himself over to his base desires that is thrilling but also distinctly uncomfortable. He is aware, on some level, that his friends must have all been in states similar to this, and have all done ridiculous, stupid things for which he has mocked them mercilessly.

But as Penny works down the zipper of his jeans and curls away the denim, he finds that he is glad that if he must feel powerless, it is with her. He runs his fingers through her hair, and she looks up at him, smiling at whatever expression flits across his face, as she carefully lowers his briefs. It becomes very difficult to keep his eyes open once she has exposed him, and he finds himself suddenly short of breath.

"Sheldon," she calls his name quietly, and he can feel her warm breath against his erection. His eyes snap open, and he looks down at her, her mouth poised above him. The sight is immensely erotic, and he finds that for as much as he feels out of control and powerless, he also feels like the most powerful man on earth.

"Penny, you're killing me." His grunted words are intended to bring awareness to the fact that he is hyperventilating and experiencing acute tachycardia, but Penny just smiles up at him.

"No, sweetie," she licks her lips and winks at him, "I'm going to make you feel a whole lot better."

His jeans and underwear are quickly pushed the rest of the way down, and Penny is there, between his legs, her mouth so close that he can feel her warm breath on his penis.

"Sheldon," she whispers his name softly when he closes his eyes for a moment, but he couldn't remove his eyes from her if the Nobel Prize committee knocked down the front door. She holds his eyes for a long, breathless moment, and then she lowers her mouth so it hovers just above tip of his penis and extends her tongue to lick off a tiny bead of pre-ejaculatory fluid, her eyes still locked with his. He gasps at the sight, somehow simultaneously erotic and sensual and sweet, and he claws at the couch by his thighs as her lips open and suck him into her mouth.

He's read about this act hundreds times, just like he's read about producing female orgasms. He's read about the nerves clustered at the frenulum, he's read about techniques women might use with their tongues and their hands and their lips. He's imagined these things plenty of times in his weekly masturbation sessions. But in all his reading, and in all his imagining, it's never actually occurred to him that he would be feeling it, and that when it is happening to him, all these techniques would be colliding at once. Her head is bobbing up and down slowly, her tongue is flicking a fast-paced pattern, one hand is curled so that it cups his testicles gently, and it is the most exquisite pleasure he's ever known.

He wonders briefly what he should do with his hands, curled into tight fists by his thighs, and eventually decides that he needs to touch her. His fingers smooth along her bare shoulders, across the back of her neck, and somehow the combination of that sensation with the wonderful things she's doing with her mouth makes everything better.

"Penny," he sighs her name, and he thinks that he says her name a lot. He thinks that each time his lips form her name, it triggers the release of oxytocin to his brain. The ramifications of that thought make him freeze for a split second, but the slow, steady flicker of her tongue makes it impossible to leave this moment. His hands slide into her hair, wanting to feel it slip between his fingers, and it prompts Penny to slide her mouth further down his shaft. He can't pull his eyes away from the sight of his penis slowly disappearing into her mouth, and he can't hold back the way he groans her name again as her lips come into contact with his pubic hair.

And then her head is moving faster, and the hand that's not lightly stroking the hair on his testes is gripping his shaft as her mouth works faster over him, and he revises his estimation because _this_ is the most exquisite pleasure he's ever known. He grunts her name because he's going to ejaculate, and for all of one horrifying second, he's wishing he had asked her about the social protocol for this moment, and then he's too far gone to care.

He's never had an orgasm this intense before, never lost control to this extent. Penny keeps her mouth on him, catching all of his semen before swallowing with his penis still in her mouth. His head drops back on the couch in exhaustion as she tenderly laps at him for a moment longer, but she stops before the sensation becomes too much. He can't seem to move his head when she slides up from the floor back onto the couch; he can't seem to answer her when she calls his name; but when she raises herself on her knees next to him and cranes over so they're eye to eye, he smiles.

"Hello," he says, exhausted but happy.

"Hello," she whispers, her voice almost shy in the aftermath of this most intimate act, and it makes him remember the day she moved in, the way he'd been so instantaneously attracted to her. He had chalked it up to the failed attempt at masturbation for money and the resulting unfulfilled need for release, had tamped it down and forgotten about it, but he's always been drawn to her in a way that transcends his understanding.

"Hello." His voice is softer this time, mimicking her shyness, and he smiles at her. She smiles back, giggling slightly, and the worried look drops from her face.

He gathers enough strength to wrap his arms around her and pull her towards him, sending them into a mostly-naked spooning heap on the couch. They cuddle like that until he regains the strength to touch her like he did the previous night. When he goes home, much later, he cannot decide which experience was more satisfying: losing control himself, or knowing that he has brought her to the same state.

[Next time: it will be Wednesday, and we all know what happens on Wednesdays at 8pm.]


	13. Chapter 13

**A****/****N****:** Thanks everyone for reviewing! You guys are fantastic.

**Wednesday ****January**** 7****th**** 7:37****pm**

He knocks on her door as she's getting ready to head to his apartment — she mentally corrects herself, because it's _their_ apartment...Leonard and Sheldon's apartment — for _Halo_ night. After her first time, she started going over on Wednesdays when she wasn't busy, but lately it feels like she's been purposely keeping her Wednesdays free, and she can't remember the last _Halo_ night she didn't go to. She's sure Sheldon is excited since New Years Eve eclipsed last week's _Halo_ night, and she wonders if they'll be on the same team. It's fun to win with him, but it's also fun to compete against him.

"Hi, Sheldon," she greets him as she swings the door open, the words out before she sees his worried face. "Sweetie?" He tries to smile back at her, but it comes out as a grimace, and he wipes his hands on his jeans as his eyes fall to the floor.

"Good evening, Penny." He nods to himself and then steps inside the apartment, swinging the door shut behind him. He wipes his hands on his pants again, and she's starting to get worried.

"What's up?"

He stares past her for a moment, off somewhere in his head, before his eyes snap into focus and he shoots her a soft smile. His right hand rises and almost touches her cheek before he pulls back and licks his lips.

"May I kiss you?" He asks the question quietly, and she answers by laughing softly and stepping closer.

"You don't have to ask," she tells him.

"Oh," he answers before finally touching her cheek with the fingers of his right hand, steadying her slightly before lowering his lips to hers. She sighs against the softness of his lips, the sweetness of his kiss, before deepening it, rising up on her toes to meet him.

He responds immediately, gasping slightly as his lips part and move to the slow rhythm she establishes. The hand on her cheek slides to the back of her head, his other hand grips her hip tightly. Penny breaks the kiss and looks up at him, grinning playfully.

"Very good, sweetie," she tells him, smiling wider at the way he hasn't released her hip. There's something extra-arousing about bringing out sexual aggression in Sheldon Cooper, PhD.

He responds by raising an eyebrow at her — _Spock __eyebrow_, she thinks — and leaning in to kiss her again. It becomes heated as she responds, following his rhythm this time, and she helps him turn them around so she's pressed into the door, his larger body pinning her there with his weight and his lips. The hands that he was rubbing against his thighs so nervously slide against her body in order to grip her waist, and he seems to know exactly what he's doing. His lips are firm, his tongue moves into her mouth slowly, purposefully, rubbing against hers, and his hands glide from her waist to her butt, which he cups gently before squeezing. She sighs into his mouth and he pulls away, a pleased smile tugging at his lips. He bends forward and kisses her forehead gently, letting his lips linger there for a long moment.

It's really weird to think about it too much, but Sheldon is actually really good at this. Last night, as they explored kissing on her couch, he had mimicked her moves closely at first, and then he knew exactly what to do. And when he fingered her again after his own orgasm, it was even better than the first time. Every step towards physical intimacy has been a lot like that: a few moments of awkwardness, and then he adjusts his programming or something because he just...gets it.

"I did not intend to kiss you like that when I knocked on your door," he murmurs against her forehead. "I merely wanted to talk, but it...you...are exceedingly difficult to resist." She grins to herself, running her hands up and down his sides.

"Kissing can be like a drug," she tells him softly, thinking back to the article she read that discussed the crapload of chemicals released into the brain by kissing.

"I believe that _you_ are like a drug," he sighs, pressing his lips into her forehead again. She smiles and wraps her arms around his torso, laying a kiss on his chest.

"You looked like you were worried about something." She whispers her concern into his chest and can feel him nod above her.

"Yes, I...may I sit down?" They move to the couch slowly, and she sits down next to him, turning to face him expectantly.

"Penny," he begins, and it sounds like he's starting a letter. "I believe that after last night we have come to an agreement that our friendship has undergone a paradigm shift. This shift, while highly desirable, will have ramifications with the rest of our social group, particularly with Leonard." Despite the tone he's keeping — it sounds more like he's reciting a formal speech from memory than saying anything personal — Penny can see the worry on his face. He must have worked on this all day, planned his words, probably after Leonard said something stupid.

She's been more than a little irritated with Leonard about his responses to her relationships in the past, and she's tired of his hurt looks and his needy eyes, especially since he kept them up even after Stephanie. Even during Stephanie. There's an impulse to release some of that irritation on Sheldon, but she realizes that he's not condoning Leonard's behavior. He's worried about his relationship with his friend, and, to be honest, she can't even wrap her head around what a reaction from Leonard might look like. And she doesn't want to be responsible for destroying Sheldon and Leonard's friendship, if only because Sheldon _needs_ Leonard.

She's drifted off, missed much of what he's said, but she cuts off his speech with: "Sheldon, do you...do you want to..." She closes her eyes because this question is harder to ask than it should be after, like, two weeks of weirdness and two nights of crazy intense non-sex. "Do you want to...stop seeing me like this...you know, like, change back our paradigm thingy..." She can't seem to utter the phrase 'break up,' "...for Leonard's sake?"

"Good Lord, no." He looks panicked by the thought, and Penny relaxes. Without consciously deciding to, she slides closer and lays her head on his chest.

"Good," she whispers, and Sheldon wraps his arms around her.

"I am simply...concerned. I want to go about introducing everyone — especially Leonard — to this shift in a way that will make it less hurtful."

"So, you came over tonight to tell me that you wanted to keep this secret for now?"

"I suppose that captures the gist of the message, yes."

"We can keep it secret, sweetie. I think that if we keep acting like we have been these past two weeks, they'll have a chance to get a little comfortable with the idea."

"Penny," Sheldon sighs her name in faux exasperation, resting his lips on top of her head. "In the past two weeks, your close proximity has left me struggling to hold back my arousal and the strong desire to act on it. I am fairly certain that it is impossible for me to behave in any other way."

She blushes at this, and can't stop herself from leaning up and kissing him softly. The way he grips her waist and pulls her more firmly against him makes her melt, and when he pushes her backwards on the couch, she falls willingly, letting herself be supported by his arms around her. She's reclined against the arm of her short couch, Sheldon hovering over her, lips fused to hers, and she wraps one leg around his waist, grinding herself upwards against him. He slides his hands up her shirt, caressing the smooth skin on her stomach as he makes his way up to her bra. He hesitates slightly, as though waiting for a sign of approval, so she arches against him, encouraging his exploration. She moans under him when his index finger flicks across her right nipple over her bra, and he smiles into her mouth.

"Perhaps we should excuse ourselves from _Halo_ night," he mumbles against her lips, and she pulls away, shocked.

"Who the hell are you and what have you done with Sheldon?" He's still hovering over her, his face inches from her own, and he lets out a perfunctory breathy laugh before rolling his eyes.

"Are you suggesting that I am some sort of pod person because I enjoy kissing you more than playing _Halo_?" For some reason that she doesn't fully understand, this sentiment causes a stab of arousal. Her response is a little breathy.

"Well...the real Sheldon Cooper would never break _Halo_ night."

"Yes, well, the real Sheldon Cooper never did this." He kisses her again, and takes advantage of the way he's fitted between her thighs to grind eagerly against her. She gasps against his mouth when he finds the perfect angle to rub against her clit, and he keeps the motion, making her dizzy. "Besides," he groans against her lips, slowing the pace of his thrusts against her, but maintaining the sensation, "Leonard has already claimed you for his team." She watches him pout a little as his hips still, and can imagine him sitting in his spot as Leonard exclaims, 'I call Penny!'

It sounds like Leonard, to claim her without her permission.

It sort of tickles her that Sheldon's response to Leonard claiming her was to come to her apartment and pin her to her door with his lips, claiming her in a very different way.

"Well, I'm not letting you skip _Halo_ night. I haven't gotten to kick your ass in two weeks." Her tongue pokes out of her mouth in a silly taunt, and he immediately kisses her again. She moans slightly, and he's working his hands under her shirt again when the alarm on his watch goes off. She smiles because he set an alarm, knowing that he'd lose track of time if he came over here.

"We have to leave now, or we'll be late." He speaks the words into her mouth, but makes no motion to let her get up, instead catching her nipple between his thumb and index finger.

"Later," she tries to say, but it comes out as a moan. "We'll finish this later."

"Finish?" He freezes above her, and she actually sees his pupils grow larger. It's really hot.

"We..." She pauses as he pinches her nipple again, and groans, "God, Sheldon...we need to talk about sex." The mere mention of the word has him kissing her roughly, grinding his hips against hers again and quickly finding the angle that made her gasp last time. And dry humping on the couch is not supposed to be this intense.

"I would very much like to have this conversation," he pants into her mouth. The alarm goes off a second time, announcing that it is now 7:58. "Later." He sighs the word and nuzzles her neck before pulling himself off of her. He moves as though it takes maximum effort to lift himself away, as though she's a magnet and he's made of metal, and she kisses him one more time, sweetly.

They straighten themselves and head across the hall, and Penny tries to find the competitive spirit that always ignites between them. Instead, she mostly feels wobbly in her knees.

When they walk inside and Leonard calls her for his team for the first two on two game against Raj and Howard, she tries to just smile and go with it.

Leonard hands her a controller from his spot on the couch, and in an effort to put a little space between them, she sits in Sheldon's spot. The offense does not go unnoticed.

"Penny, you're in my spot," he announces from the kitchen, and she raises her eyes to meet his. All at once, attraction and arousal meet stubbornness and competitive spirit, and she grins at him, wiggling her hips as though she's trying to get extra comfortable. He raises an eyebrow at her, and she can almost hear him saying, 'Fascinating.' She's never noticed how _hot_ it is when he does his Spock thing.

"Penny, get out of my spot."

"Make me." Her lips are pursed in challenge, holding back the smile that wants to break free, and she sees something familiar flash across Sheldon's eyes, and anger and lust can't look that similar, can they?

"Oh, I believe that can be arranged." His voice is low, and really sexy, and then he's striding towards her purposefully. She wants desperately to know what he'll do, but she just slides over because, _God_, Leonard and Raj and Howard have been watching this and she doesn't know what will happen if he touches her. She doesn't know what she'll do if he touches her. He takes his seat purposefully, glaring at her, but his lips twitch into a half smile as he offers up a bottle of water and a Diet Coke, silently asking which she would prefer. She grabs the Coke and scoots closer to him; since he's not playing, he stretches his arm across the couch behind her, settling in to watch the match.

"Will you two please stop acting like children? We're three minutes late starting _Halo_ night." The sentiment sounds like Sheldon, but the words come from Leonard, and she turns her head to look at the man on the other side of her on the couch.

She can see Raj, who is sitting in the armchair, out of the corner of her eye, and he looks like he objects to Leonard's classification of what just happened as childish. She's actually pretty glad he can't talk for once.

"Let's start!" Penny exclaims, hoping to avoid any further scrutiny.

She's unfocused and irritated, wishing she had taken up Sheldon on his offer to skip this, and she plays horribly. Sheldon is so close to her that she can feel warmth radiating from his body, and she can't stop thinking about sex. Based on everything that's happened so far, she thinks the sex will be kind of amazing, and it makes it hard to concentrate on things that aren't sex.

Sex.

She and Leonard lose, though not by much, and she tries to care — she really does.

Their house rule says that whoever has the lowest kill count gives up his spot, and this time it's Howard, even though he was on the winning team. Sheldon grabs the controller, and Penny turns towards him, watching his face as he goes to the menu and changes the control settings to his preferences. He turns towards her and raises his eyebrow; she wonders if she's always found the Spock thing this sexy.

"This should be easy." He smirks as he says it, and she glares at him.

"Oh, it's on, Sheldon," she says, their eyes still locked.

"What's correct the idiom here? 'Bring it'?" His eyes are ridiculously intense, and she wants to climb on his lap, pin his shoulders to the couch, and kiss him. The way he leans slightly towards her, his lips parted, means he's probably thinking something similar. He licks his lips, and her eyes fall to his mouth, which suddenly turns upward in a smirk. The cocky bastard knows he's turning her on, and that knowledge is both infuriating and a further turn-on. When their gazes lock again, he looks terribly amused, and she glares at him before tearing her eyes away.

She turns towards the television, fully focused on murdering him as many times as possible in the next thirty minutes.

"God dammit, Leonard, pay attention!" she screeches when her teammate is blown to bits by Sheldon for the third time in the first several minutes of the game. She retaliates quickly, sniping Sheldon in the head and giggling at his irritated noise.

She quickly loses track of Raj and Leonard; the entire purpose of the game is narrowed down to a battle between her and Sheldon, and she's buzzing with the excitement. She can feel him next to her — his knee brushes against hers from time to time — and it's never occurred to her that video games could function as foreplay. But the pleasant ache between her legs says that _Halo_ is excellent foreplay. When the clock finally runs out, she and Leonard are ahead by two kills, and more importantly, she's killed Sheldon once more than he's killed her.

"Consider it 'brought,' Sheldon." She smirks over at him and finds him glaring back.

"You're cheating," he breathes. She can't tell if the spark in his eye is anger or arousal because it's the same argument they have nearly every week — she's the only one that won't obey his arbitrary, hypocritical respawn rules — but it feels very, very different.

"I do _not_ cheat," she seethes. It feels like her gaze is somehow glued to his eyes, like it would hurt to tear her eyes away from his.

"You consistently fail to give me an appropriate buffer period after I respawn."

"Oh, and you wait ten seconds for me?"

"Beside the point." He waves his hand dismissively, and she turns her whole body towards him, matching his gaze, getting into the argument. Somewhere in the background she hears Leonard announce that he's going to get the pizza for the pizza break. She's vaguely aware that Howard and Raj both jump up to go with him, probably to escape the palpable tension between her and Sheldon.

"Sheldon, you know perfectly well that..." And he cuts her off as the door slams, pressing his lips to hers, hard, and grasping her ponytail. A quick tug of her hair, and her head tilts backwards, allowing him better access to her mouth.

"I need..." She's not sure what, exactly, he would have said in that low, gruff voice, since she cuts him off by slipping her tongue just past his lips, and whatever words may have come degenerate into a groan. His hands slide from her hair to her shoulders, and for all the desperation of his kiss, his touch remains light and teasing. She can feel his hands shake as his fingers trail down her arms, and is more than a little shocked when his hands suddenly tighten around her wrists, gripping her almost too hard.

He pulls away from their kiss before pushing her backwards as he lifts her wrists over her head. This couch is much longer than hers, which is an obvious fact that she was already fully aware of, but she appreciates its length for the first time as she slides down until her arms are flat on the couch above her head. Sheldon leans over her, carefully adjusting her arms so that they are held tightly in his right hand, his weight supported by his left hand and his right elbow against the back of the couch. Their feet dangle off the edge, and it's not the most comfortable, but she certainly doesn't care.

And then he stares down at her, holding himself almost too still. She can immediately tell that he fantasized about this, probably while they were fighting earlier, and it sends a thrill through her body.

"Is this okay?" He sounds nervous, as though he thinks she might seriously object, and she giggles.

"What do you think?" she asks, grinning up at him. He swallows and his gaze falls from her eyes to the curve of her lips to glance down her body.

"I fear that you might object because it is contrary to your personality to enjoy being in a submissive position. However, your dilated pupils, flushed cheeks, and erect nipples all indicate that you are aroused by our current position."

"If I'm aroused by something, it's a pretty safe bet that you should keep doing it," Penny tells him, smiling up at him. Because she had a fantasy about this once, and she's never liked it when other guys try to take control, but this is _Sheldon_ and she trusts him.

Slowly, she raises her legs and wraps them around his hips, grinding up against him teasingly. He gasps and drops further down, pressing his erection against her. And then he kisses her, demanding in a way that's new for them, definitely new to him, that ignites her blood in a way few kisses ever do.

He pulls away from her lips too soon, panting, though he doesn't make a move to get up.

"Penny," he breathes her name against her lips, pulling his head back a few inches when she tries to kiss him again. Instead, he lowers his head to lay a soft kiss below her ear, earning him a quiet moan. "I am both excited and frightened by the prospect of moving our relationship forward sexually," he whispers the words just under her ear lobe, and the feel of his breath as much as the content of his words makes her moan. "You realize, of course, that it will be a new experience for me, and I will likely not...fulfill your expectations." She lets out a hoarse laugh, and is either punished or rewarded with a gentle bite on her neck.

"Based on everything else we've done, I think you'll more than 'fulfill my expectations,' sweetie." She moans when his teeth meet her neck again, with slightly more force. He pulls back enough to look her in the eye and redistributes his weight, leaning harder into the couch with the arm holding her wrists captive, so he can touch her cheek with his left index finger.

"You mean to say that because I am aware of how to locate your 'g-spot' and effectively manipulate your clitoris, you assume that I will also be able to bring you to orgasm in coitus." She's not sure whether to blush or roll her eyes at his words. She does both.

"You figured out how make me cum with your fingers, so I think you'll figure out _sex_, Sheldon," she corrects him, though without any real heat. He doesn't acknowledge her correction.

"But, you see, I have been led to believe that while some of my knowledge of anatomy and sexual physiology will carry over, skill in sexual congress is gained primarily through practice." He looks nervous, completely vulnerable for a moment, and she leans up to kiss him quickly.

"I've always thought that skill in the other stuff we've done is gained through practice, too," she grins and shakes her head. "And besides, we have plenty of time to practice together." He smiles at that and kisses her again, first a soft peck and then harder as he seems to remember their relative positions.

"Would you be amenable to engaging in our first practice tonight?" He pulls away from her lips long enough to ask the question, and then kisses her again before she has the chance to answer. She manages to moan in the affirmative, and she thinks he mumbles something else against her mouth, but it's drowned out by the rush of blood when his hand cups her breast.

It's his Vulcan hearing that saves them, and he practically leaps off of her at the sound of the guys heading back up the stairs, taking a moment to adjust the erection straining against his jeans before turning towards her and saying, loudly:

"As I've told you before, Penny, there's a certain ethic to the game..." He stops talking when the guys walk in the door, looking exasperated, as though they've interrupted him from a long speech. He has gotten much, much better at lying, although she supposes that it helps that rather than someone springing a secret on him, he has chosen to keep their actions hidden.

The night is fairly uneventful after that. She plays once more, teamed with Sheldon against Raj and Howard, and then willingly gives up her controller to watch a long round of just the four guys. Whenever he's not focused on the screen, she can feel Leonard looking at her disapprovingly, especially when Sheldon catches her sipping from his water bottle and scolds her with his flashing, sexy eyes instead of a strike. And then proceeds to sip from the bottle himself. At the end of the night, when she and Sheldon have planned on heading over to her apartment, Leonard decides to stay up late working on his laptop in the living room. She heads home alone and waits for Sheldon to come over when Leonard goes to bed.

She gets a text from Sheldon at 12:45 saying that he doesn't believe Leonard will go to bed before he does, and sighs. So much for practicing tonight.

So much for keeping it secret.

[Next time...some practicing. *cough*]


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: I'm late on this, but it's extra long to make up for it. Thank you for reviews!

**Thursday January 8th 8:07pm**

Sheldon is standing in the hall, preparing to knock on Penny's door. She has insisted on choosing what they will watch tonight, and he wants to be annoyed because they're barely into season two of _Star Trek_, but it's hard to be annoyed when he's so nervous.

He's come to the conclusion, since she left last night and he masturbated in the bathroom twice before going to bed, that they are not going to be sexually compatible. Until this point in his life, he's never had the opportunity to judge whether he will be aggressive or passive in a sexual scenario, and it is becoming clear to him that he is more aggressive. Last night, after his first orgasm in the shower, he had been brushing his teeth when he was struck with the image of bending Penny over the bathroom counter, his hand fisted around her ponytail like it had been on the couch, and penetrating her quite roughly. While he had masturbated a second time to the image, bent over the counter thrusting into his hand, in the cold light of post-ejaculation he became aware that if Penny is truly as aggressive sexually as she once claimed, she will probably not enjoy this side of him.

It is confusing and frustrating: he has never actually found a woman viscerally attractive before — he has acknowledged the beauty in plenty of people, certainly, but it has never impacted him as it does with Penny. He has never known what it's like to _want _someone the way he _wants _Penny, so exploring his sexual persona outside of fantasies built on sexual research tomes has been a moot point. This is despite infatuated grad students throwing themselves at him with some regularity each fall. He could have had sex with any of them; he's sure of it. But he simply...hasn't ever wanted to, and it has always been easier to avoid acknowledging the option than to _explain_ his choice. The ramifications of sexual intercourse, particularly on an expected emotional level, have never seemed worth it, and it has always been easier to ignore his drive for sex. So it is particularly cruel that he should find himself to be sexually incompatible with the only woman to have aroused him in this manner.

These thoughts are still swirling in his mind when Penny's door opens and she steps out with a concerned look on her face.

"You're late." She narrows her eyes at him and it makes his heart pound harder because Penny has never cared for promptness, but she's worried over eight minutes because he is the one who is tardy.

"I apologize. I have been contemplating thoughts that are somewhat distressing." Her eyes widen at this statement, and she reaches for his hand, pulling him inside. He takes his seat on her couch and is gratified when she sits sideways in his lap, her legs stretched across the empty side of the couch.

"What is it, sweetie?"

"I don't believe we are sexually compatible, Penny." He avoids looking at her as he speaks, keeping his eyes focused on one of the Japanese cats on her shorts.

"That...is not something I have worried about at all," she assures him, laughter in her voice, but he brushes it off.

"You told me once that you prefer to initiate your sexual encounters, which should indicate that your ideal mate is sexually passive." He can almost sense the confusion running off of her in waves, and he realizes that he never told her about his subterfuge in filling out the survey for the dating website. When she finally remembers the event in question, she laughs. "Until recently, I did not know whether I fell into the sexually passive or aggressive category, but, Penny, I..."

"You were aggressive last night," she supplies and he glances up, meeting her eyes, remembering the foreign territorial urges that sprang up within him as Leonard goaded him about having Penny on his _Halo_ team. "I liked that a lot, Sheldon." He can see the signs of arousal in her eyes, in her parted lips, in the flush staining her cheeks.

"There's more than that, though. Last night, after you left, I was in the bathroom and I..."

"You jacked off?" He can feel himself blushing at her coarse language, but the embarrassment is tempered with arousal.

"I imagined you. I imagined holding you down, bent over the counter. And I was pulling your ponytail, making you arch your back so I could bite your neck. And I was..." He can't bring himself to finish, but she's nodding.

"Would you like to know what I thought about?" Her voice sounds one part amused, one part aroused, and he nods. "The way you were holding me down on the couch, with my arms over my head." He flushes at the memory of pinning her like that, a fantasy image that invaded his mind as they fought over _Halo_. "I imagined that you held me like that, Sheldon, and pulled off my shorts and fucked me, hard." Her face is two inches from his, and he leans down to kiss her, his hands grasping the sides of her head none too gently. She moves to straddle his lap, and he groans when she breaks the kiss to grind her sex against his growing erection.

She winks at him slyly, and then rises to her knees and leans backwards, arching her spine gracefully in a move that appears to have been appropriated from a very flexible stripper, and grabs an elastic hair tie off of the table. He watches, captivated, as she rights herself, still raised on her knees, and pulls her hair into a high pony tail. Slowly, she drops herself back down, once again bringing their bodies into full contact. She reaches for his left hand and guides it to the pony tail.

"Penny." He inhales deeply, trying to keep some semblance of control, and she smiles at him.

"I think your fantasy sounds hot, Sheldon." And then she kisses him, moaning into his mouth when he tugs gently on her hair. And any hope he had of keeping control is gone.

He releases his grasp on her hair just long enough to rip her tank top over her head, and then grabs her ponytail again, this time closer to the root.

"Take off your bra," he grinds out the order against her neck, and she immediately complies, her arms stretched behind her as the lacy pink undergarment goes slack. She hasn't even gotten it off of her arms when he slides his mouth down her neck to pull her left nipple into his mouth.

"Oh, God...Sheldon," she moans, and the sound makes him pull away, or rather, it makes him tug her hair so she's no longer pressed so closely against him.

He drops his hands to his sides, closes his eyes, begins to silently recite pi, and tries desperately to slow his breathing and control himself. It takes 70 digits before he can speak, but he still can't open his eyes.

"So, you were lying about your sexual proclivities? Or are you humoring me? Am I...am I forcing you to behave in a manner that runs counter to your preferences?" He still can't quite get control of his breath, consumed with the knowledge that her bare breasts are just in front of him, even if he's not looking.

"Sheldon, look at me." He shakes his head, keeping his eyes tightly shut, and is surprised when her fingers thread through the hair on the back of his head looking for a handful to grip. She finds it and tugs, hard. "I said look at me, Sheldon."

He obeys, his eyes snapping open and meeting hers before drifting down to her breasts and back up. She smiles at him and rises up on her knees so she's above him, her breasts now almost level with his mouth. She tugs his head backwards with the hand still fisted in his hair, and then leans over him in a deep kiss. He responds enthusiastically, and she smiles against him. When she releases his hair and pulls away, he follows her lips, unwilling to let the kiss end.

"Sheldon," she whispers against his lips, and he opens his eyes. "No couple is ever the same, okay? And I've never been with a man who made me feel comfortable with giving up control. I've always been the aggressor. I _like_ being the aggressor." He nods, watching her face closely, looking for any signs of dishonesty. "At the same time, sweetie, I don't care what the dating site said, it's no fun being aggressive with someone totally passive. You've gotta have...a challenge." Her eyes flash dangerously, and he has a 'eureka moment.'

Penny is the first woman interested in him sexually who presents a challenge, who doesn't worship him, who isn't interested in being his personal servant. If he believed in pop psychology, he'd think that it's also because she's actually a lot like his mother (minus the Jesus obsession, though astrology isn't terribly far off even if it comes with less evangelism), but the whole field of psychology is largely hokum, so he focuses on how she's right. Their relationship has been a struggle for control, and that struggle is what makes them work.

His hands find her hips, and he pulls her into a hug as he relaxes at this new realization. Some part of him, he now sees, has been convinced that he and Penny make a strange couple. And maybe they do. But college degrees or not, her personality is really a perfect fit; she's been learning about his interests; and he's never felt this good about being this physically close to another person. He sighs against her neck, feeling more comfortable than he has in recent memory. She seems to catch the shift in his mood and relaxes against him

"I enjoy your company quite a lot, Penny," he whispers his confession onto the bare skin at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, and she shudders.

He feels subdued, now, and he wants to sit with her and just enjoy the fact that this must be what falling in love feels like. Moving slowly, languidly, he reaches for her top next to them on the couch and pulls it back over her head before removing the elastic from her hair. He keeps his hands in her hair and his eyes on her face as she pulls the shirt over her arms and down, and when she's covered, he hugs her again.

"You told me that you wanted to pick something for us to watch tonight," he tells her, her body still pressed against his. He thinks that maybe he's confusing her, based on the way she's stiff in his arms, so he tries again. "You have been watching something important to me, and I want to do the same. I want..." She cuts him off with a soft kiss, and he takes it to mean that she understands. It's about television, and it's about watching television instead of engaging in sexual activities, but it feels like the right thing to do.

She rises from the couch and bounces over with season 1 of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, which he immediately dismisses.

"No, Sheldon, it's really good. I bet you'll like it." She looks hopeful and possibly hurt, so he rushes to explain himself.

"Penny, Joss Whedon made _Firefly_." He nods his head, waiting for her to understand. She doesn't. "I have watched everything he's made. Leonard and I own seasons three through eight of _Buffy_." She smiles softly, and he pulls her back into his lap, kissing her quickly.

"I don't know what to show you, then," she says to his shoulder as she stretches her legs across the couch, and he smiles down at her.

"What was your favorite movie when you were thirteen?"

"Thirteen?" She tilts her head to the side, looking at him like he might be insane.

"It is a formative year for most people. I have found that I can tell a lot about a person based on his or her favorite movie at thirteen. For example, Leonard's favorite movie was _A New Hope_, when he could pretend that Luke Skywalker would 'get the girl.'"

"Because Leonard sees himself as Luke Skywalker?" Sheldon raises an eyebrow at her, asking her without words if she really needs to ask that question.

"Wolowitz's favorite movie at thirteen was _Pretty Woman_." He rolls his eyes and she laughs.

"It _is_ his goal in life to 'save' a prostitute, isn't it?" She giggles and he smiles down at her. "And what was your favorite movie at thirteen, Sheldon?"

"At thirteen, I was choosing a graduate school, meaning that this principle is somewhat skewed when applied to me, as my experiences were so far outside the norm." She nods, her eyes holding something between pity and admiration. "But I was more or less obsessed with anything involving _Star Trek. _If I had to choose, it would be the fourth movie, _The Voyage Home_. You're going to have to finish the series before we can watch the movies, though." She smiles at him and kisses him softly.

"My favorite movie was probably _Labyrinth_."

"The film with David Bowie and the puppets?" At her nod, he tilts his head to the side, considering her. "It suits you," he concludes, and she gives him a weird smile.

"It suits me?"

"Well, it means you had the good taste to enjoy puppetry, which excuses your otherwise dismal knowledge of Yoda in particular and good movies in general."

"Gee, thanks," Penny says, rolling her eyes.

"You're wel...that was sarcasm, wasn't it?" She lets out a little laugh and lays her head on his shoulder.

"What else does it say about me?" The question is whispered in his neck, and he squeezes her gently.

"Many girls at thirteen are obsessed with movies in which the leading character is a damsel in distress. That...would not suit you."

"I've never wanted to be rescued," Penny acknowledges, and Sheldon releases his tight hug in order to trail his hands up and down her back.

"I would hope that what you mean to say is that you never wanted to be the damsel in distress — you would be the princess who participates in her own rescue. Like Leia in _Star Wars_."

"But I hated _Star Wars_ because Princess Leia had to be the damsel in distress," she confesses, and Sheldon smiles.

"Then you only saw part four." It's part question, part statement, and she cocks her head to the side in confusion before he explains that the first movie was the fourth movie. She rolls her eyes but nods. "You cannot base your assessment of Leia's character solely on _A New Hope_. As Leia and Han Solo become more involved, she is a much more...interesting character."

"Because she needs a man to make her more interesting?" Penny seems wary, and Sheldon nuzzles the top of her head, his hands still sliding over her back slowly.

"On the contrary. Leia is, statistically, the best shot in all three films, and she is a perfectly interesting character in her own right. Her relationship with Han Solo is..." He pauses, searching for words. "You could argue that it is Leia that does the rescuing, but overall they work together. They have a...somewhat competitive, pseudo-antagonistic relationship."

"You're a fan of their 'somewhat competitive, pseudo-antagonistic relationship,' then?" He can feel his cheeks grow hot under her gaze, and she kisses him again. "See," she raises her eyebrows meaningfully as she pulls her lips away from his, "I told you it's the challenge that makes it hot."

He doesn't have a chance to respond as her mouth connects with his more firmly, her tongue twining with his in a way that makes his whole body throb. It feels like a duel taking place between their mouths, like he's fighting her and surrendering to her in the same moment, and he doesn't want to stop.

She eventually pulls away, her flushed cheeks and swollen lips making her appear even more enticing than usual as she rises from his lap and heads to her dvd collection. He watches her rifle through the disorganized piles and valiantly resists the urge to discuss the imposition of his media organizational paradigm. He's certain this is an inopportune moment for such a conversation, and he feels somewhat proud of the fact that he can tell.

She holds up _Labyrinth_ triumphantly after a moment, and he's mildly amused that her disorganization enables her to feel this sense of accomplishment. It is...cute, he thinks.

"I must admit that this film was also a favorite of Missy's," he tells her, and she nods as though he's stated something obvious, which, given how much she has in common with his twin, is probably the case. "However, I was not living at home through our teenage years, and therefore have only seen it in incomplete pieces."

"I'm afraid you won't see it all the way through this time, either." She smiles at him lasciviously, and he's suddenly unable to forget that they were going to engage in sexual intercourse last night.

"Yes, well, that would not be entirely disagreeable, I suppose," he mumbles nervously, frowning at her giggles as she takes her seat next to him. He wraps his arm around her shoulders and she relaxes against him.

Just after he easily solves the riddle of the lying/truth-telling gates, Penny leans up and kisses him softly. Before he can respond, she slides her mouth from his lips to his chin and down his neck.

"Oh," he gasps as her tongue finds his pulse and presses hard against it before she bites down. She slides into his lap and pulls his shirts over his head, draping them over the back of the couch before letting her kisses fall lower until she hits his right nipple. "Penny," he groans at the firm lick of her tongue against his nipple.

"Shhh," she shushes him mock-seriously and slides off of his lap back into her seat, leaving him confused, aroused, and shirtless.

"Penny..." He starts to ask her what's going on, but she shushes him again and turns back to the television.

Ten minutes later, when her hand slides back onto his bare chest, followed by her lips, he keeps his mouth shut. Slowly, her hand smooths down his bare skin, her fingernails scratch through the light patch of chest hair, and her lips follow the downward trajectory. He sucks in a noisy breath but avoids any vocal sounds when she unbuttons his pants. He struggles for air as her lips slide down his stomach and settle over his covered erection, letting him feel the heat of her breath through the thin white cotton.

She pushes his underwear down his thighs a little ways along with his jeans, and as her mouth closes over the tip of his penis he has to bite his lips to keep from calling out her name.

Penny seems to relax in this position, lounging next to him on the sofa, her head in his lap, working her mouth over him leisurely. The intense feelings of urgency and impending release aren't there like they were the last time she did this. Instead, it's a slow burn of pleasure, licking at the base of his spine, and his prevailing thought is that he wants her to continue this forever, indefinitely. It takes several long minutes for him to feel comfortable enough to move his hands from his sides, to touch her, and even then he restrains himself to tracing the tips of his fingers up and down her back gently.

He's not sure how long they stay like this since his head lolls on the couch and he loses track of the movie, but eventually his fingertips on her back work into her hair, burying themselves in her silky locks. At the touch of his hand on her head, Penny sinks her mouth down further on his shaft, and he once again bites his lips to keep from groaning her name. Without meaning to, he grasps a handful of her hair, encouraging her to make her movements over him deeper and faster.

But he doesn't want to end this sexual encounter like this. He wants tonight to end in the coitus that they did not get to engage in last night. He wants to put his mouth on her, to bring her this kind of pleasure. He wants the satisfaction of bringing her to orgasm.

"Penny," he gasps her name, pulling her head away from him before she can make him ejaculate.

"Shhh," she mock whispers, but her eyes go wide at the urgency she clearly reads in his.

"Bedroom." He manages to form the word despite the fact that there is substantially less blood in his brain than normal, and she nods, her eyes still large and serious.

She rises slowly, purposefully, and turns off the television before standing in front of him as he's still seated on the couch, his pants and underwear halfway to his knees. Moving with slow, enticing grace, Penny strips her shirt over her head, tossing it onto the back of the couch next to him where her bra and his shirts still lie. He takes in a deep breath at the vision of her breasts, still utterly perfect, and keeps his eyes on her as she cups them before sliding her hands down her stomach to finger the waistband of her shorts. She pulls out the small bow in the drawstring and lowers one side of the shorts past her hip, showing him that her panties seem to consist of just a string of pink ribbon. He is far from knowledgeable about women or sexual encounters, but he feels certain that she put on this particular item specifically for him to see.

"Penny," he breathes her name again, greeted by the familiar wave of endorphins as his lips stretch out the first syllable.

She shoots him a soft smile, warm and sensual, before turning her back to him and lowering her shorts past her bottom, letting them fall to the floor. He thinks she might be looking back at him, but he can't manage to move his eyes away from her body to see. Her spine is arched beautifully, presenting her posterior in the most pleasing manner, and her panties are indeed a mere string of ribbon, circling her hips and disappearing between her buttocks.

"You have a tattoo," he mumbles inanely, staring at the blue Chinese character on the right hemisphere of her behind.

"It means 'courage,'" she tells him. "I got it right before I moved here."

"It means 'soup,'" he responds, somehow unable to look away. "You probably shouldn't have trusted a Nebraskan tattoo artist to know Chinese."

"How do you know?" She asks him, and he can't tell if she's angry with him.

"I learned Mandarin specifically to complain about food." She laughs at this, so at least he knows she's not angry.

"I remember you not being very good at it," she sighs, letting out a high pitched sigh as he extends his finger to touch the tattoo.

"I am still quite certain that this means 'soup,'" he speaks the words softly as he touches her, almost surprised to find that both the ink and the skin around the ink are perfectly soft and smooth.

"It means 'courage' to me," she counters.

"I suppose it is courageous to get such a tattoo," he acknowledges, "meaning that it may carry personal significance related to courage, but the fact remains that this character objectively means 'soup.'"

"Are you just going to pick on my tattoo all night?" She sounds frustrated now, and Sheldon smiles.

"I did not intend to pick on your tattoo. I like it," he tells her. "I quite enjoy soup."

"Especially when it has hot dogs in it?" He can hear her smile as she asks the question, and he nods adamantly.

"While I am a fan of most soup, that is, of course, my favorite." She giggles at his words and he is struck with the inexplicable urge to touch his lips to it. "Except for this one."

When his lips brush across the character, her whole body seems to shudder in response.

"Sheldon," she moans above him, and he pulls back, leaving the tattoo alone as he examines the panties she has chosen to show off for him.

He can't resist the urge to reach out a single finger and trace the thin ribbon, but she squeaks out a surprised noise at the feeling of his finger slipping downwards between her buttocks and turns around, flushed and slightly shaking.

The front is more modest, a lacy pink triangle that covers a similarly shaped patch of pubic hair at the top of her vulva, and he lets his finger trace this shape, as well. Once he has touched the perimeter of the fabric, he raises both hands to her hips and slides the skimpy undergarment to the floor.

"Penny," he sighs her name as he looks up at her. "You are...perfect." He strokes the triangle of hair before he allows a finger to slip lower. He has touched her here already, but only under her undergarments, never while he could see the dark color of her pubic hair or appreciate the time she must take to groom herself. His finger slips down between her labia, which she keeps shaved smooth, and he circles her clitoris several times, stopping only when her knees seem to give out and she holds herself up by her hands on his shoulders.

Slowly, he draws his finger away from her body and slides it past his lips, curious about the taste of her if he is to put his mouth here. The taste is very faint, and he finds that he is excited to explore further.

"Sheldon," she groans his name as she watches him taste her. He looks up into her eyes, and she quickly grasps his hand and pulls him from the couch. His pants fall down his legs as he rises, and he takes a moment to awkwardly step out of his shoes and remaining clothing.

He reaches out and cups her face in his hands, kissing her softly before pressing his lips harder against hers and sliding her naked body against his own. The feeling of naked flesh on naked flesh is intoxicating, and he can't help the way his hands fall from her face to grope her, to make sure every part of her touches every part of him.

She pulls away from him in order to grasp his hand and lead him towards her bed. The sheets are crooked and wrinkled, and normally he won't lie on a bed unless it has been properly made so the sheets are crisp and flat, but when Penny pushes him backwards, he doesn't have time to care about its unmade state.

He grasps her waist gently as she crawls on top of him and rolls them so he's situated on top of her, her knees open to let him rest between her thighs. His erection slides against her slit, and he can feel how wet she is when she eagerly bucks her hips against him, how her arousal is like liquid silk, slippery and hot and beckoning him. He clenches his jaw as he scrapes together enough control to pull away from the awaiting heat between her thighs, instead nuzzling her neck as the urgency of the moment passes.

"I wish to perform cunnilingus," he whispers into her neck, and she rolls her eyes even as an obvious sex flush spreads up her chest.

"You want to eat my pussy, Sheldon," she corrects him, her voice breathy.

He raises an eyebrow at her and she laughs, reaching up a finger to trace it.

"Very well, Penny." He takes a breath and pulls back to gaze down at her flushed, nude body before dropping back down so his lips brush her ear. "I want to eat your...pussy," he whispers, stumbling slightly over the last word. He tries again, using language that he deems will be more pleasing to her. "I want to bring you to orgasm with my mouth."

She groans loudly and nods her head, indicating her pleasure at this intention. Sheldon begins to trail his lips down her body, working quickly towards the juncture of her legs.

When he settles between her thighs, he can't help taking a moment to just...look. He knows from fingering her before that she keeps her outer labia shaved smooth, with a neat triangle of hair growing on her mons pubis. It's quite attractive, and he's able to see why this part of the female anatomy is so often compared to a flower. Moving slowly, not quite sure of himself, Sheldon touches her swollen labia majora with his right index finger, running his fingertip along the outer perimeter with the barest caress.

"Sheldon," Penny groans his name loudly. "More." His Adams apple bobs in a dry swallow as he looks up at her. Her face is flushed pink, her lips parted as she sucks in long, uneven breaths.

Still moving slowly, he lightly brushes his fingertip along the labia minora, slick with evidence of her arousal. His finger moves within a fraction of a millimeter of her clitoris, and she grunts her frustration when he moves it away, instead lowering his finger to her vaginal opening. He slides it inside of her, watching her eyes close. Her hips begin to move against his hand in hopes of finding greater stimulation.

Her eyes snap open and lock with his as he slips his finger back out of her and brings it to his mouth, where he can't hold back a smile as he slides it past his lips. She groans loudly at the vision of him tasting her, and he sucks on his finger curiously. The flavor is slightly musky and metallic, but generally inoffensive, even pleasant, given the context of her pleasure. He returns his finger to her vulva, sliding it from the patch of hair through her labia and inside of her again.

"Please, more," she whispers, her hips gyrating against his hand, and any thoughts he had of going slowly and exploring are out the window. His middle finger joins his index finger inside of her, and he twists his wrist experimentally. This angle is less ideal than the positions in which he has previously engaged in this activity, and he flounders for a moment. However, her groans at his movements are both helpful and arousing, and he quickly finds a rhythm and angle that allow him to stimulate her g-spot.

Once he is pleased with the rhythm of his fingers, he lowers his lips to her clitoris, kissing it gently. With his mouth directly against her, the taste and smell are both stronger — her skin is glistening with her arousal — and he finds it much more pleasant than he imagined he would. He lets his tongue move in one long lick, starting from just above his thrusting fingers to the top of her clitoris, and she shudders at the sensation. Being surrounded by her this way, the scented lotion on her thighs — green tea and mint — combined with the uniquely spicy scent of _her_, makes his head spin. He pulls his mouth away from her sex to nuzzle her inner thigh for a moment, dropping a kiss right at the juncture of her leg and pelvis before bringing his mouth back to where she wants it.

He begins to experiment with some of the reports he has read on how to best stimulate a clitoris orally, poking his tongue out of his mouth in a firm point and beginning to lick the little nub in much the same rhythm he uses with his fingers.

"Faster," she grunts as her legs wrap around his shoulders and her hands shoot forward to grasp his hair.

He obliges, moving his tongue faster, and begins to vary his motion from up and down to the shape of the digits of Euler's number, making her grind her hips up towards him. As his tongue begins to tire, he tries a different method: moving his lips over the nub while applying gentle suction, his tongue flickering behind his lips.

"Shit, Sheldon," she calls his name loudly, and his first instinct is to pull away, afraid that he's hurt her. But her hands grasp his hair harder, pushing his face into her. "Shit, Sheldon," she pants again, and it becomes her repeated mantra as she bucks against his hand and mouth before her hips rise up off the bed as her whole body quakes. He keeps his tongue working until she pushes his head away, and he sits back on the bed as she comes down.

His face is sticky with her arousal, and he wipes at it self consciously with his clean hand before climbing over her body and kissing her.

"Penny," he whispers into her ear, anxious for what he's hoping comes next.

"Yes," she moans. She's still spent, but her hand grasps his shaft and guides it between her legs, rubbing it through the collected moisture and up against her clitoris several times before positioning him at her entrance, her knees raised on either side of his hips.

They groan together as he pushes inside of her, and he shudders at the combination of being surrounded by her and hearing her low moans of contentment at total penetration.

"Penny," he whispers her name in awe as he feels the tight walls of her vagina grip him.

He stays buried completely inside of her for a minute, during which time ceases to flow, before experimentally making small circles with his pelvis, exploring her reactions. When he starts thrusting, she moans with every stroke, so he sets a slow, easy rhythm. Some part of his brain urges him to go faster, harder, to seek his own release, but he's read enough to know that he needs to start slow, he needs to build this up for both of them, if he wants to last.

"Faster," she grunts after a few minutes of slow thrusting, and he obliges, captivated at the play of emotions across her face, even though her eyes are closed.

"Penny, please open your eyes," he whispers, and her eyes pop open to look up at him in the dim room. Without slowing his thrusts, Sheldon grasps her right knee and pushes it towards her chest, making his penetration deeper and more focused on where he knows she needs it.

"Shit, Sheldon," comes the familiar mantra again, and he smirks because he never imagined that his name paired with any curse word, let alone a curse word for fecal matter, would be the most beautiful sound he's ever heard. This time, it's interspersed with pleas that he not stop, so he doesn't. He pushes thoughts of his own orgasm as far from his mind as possible, focusing his entire being instead on the way Penny's head is thrown back against her pillows and her moans have turned breathier. Sheldon shifts his position again, angling his pelvis so that his pubic bone grinds against Penny's clitoris on each thrust, and that does it. Her final, "Shit, Sheldon," comes out as almost a scream, and he slows his thrusts, letting her relax beneath him and holding off his own release.

He kisses her again, and she responds, bringing her hands up to his face and cupping his cheeks softly.

"Sheldon," she whispers against his lips, "that was..." He kisses her before she can finish and thrusts into her, hard, wringing a gasp from her lips. He wants desperately to try this another way that he has read about.

"I would like to attempt a rear entry position," he mutters into her mouth, and she lets out a tired squeak.

"You want to do it doggie style, sweetie, or take me from behind." He nods his head, accepting her greater rhetorical expertise with bedroom talk.

"Please turn over, Penny," he sighs into her mouth, and she nods against him before he pulls away, giving her space to do as he has asked. Already tired from two orgasms, she collapses down, leaving her rear in the air while her face is on the mattress. Sheldon encourages her to raise her torso slightly, arching her back so that the curve at the base of her spine contrasts the roundness of her bottom. It is particularly appealing.

"This should be better for you," he tells her as he thrusts back inside of her waiting warmth, his fingers digging into her hip bones as he pulls her back against him. His movements are harder, faster in this position, but he keeps talking in between panting breaths and groans. "Instead of...just hitting your...cervix...the arch...in your back...allows me to...most directly rub against...your g-spot."

As if to prove his point, Penny begins her mantra again, but, "Shit, Sheldon," is replaced by, "Oh, God, Sheldon," and he smiles as his thrusts speed up more. This time, he's focused almost entirely on his own release, his own pleasure, which is greatly enhanced by the vision of Penny's body splayed before him. Her upturned bottom is especially appealing, and without slowing his thrusts, he brings his right hand to touch the Chinese character, roughly moving his fingers against her flesh before his attention falls to the tiny puckered hole that's practically pointed up towards him. He is aware that the nerves around the sphincter are frequently linked to female pleasure, although he is also aware that operant cultural taboos often limit such pleasure. There seems to be only one way to find out how Penny feels about the issue.

He slows his thrusting for just a moment as he slides his index finger to touch her there before picking up his speed again. He assumes it is a side effect of her hairlessness, but he is somewhat shocked to feel how much of her arousal has dripped from her vagina to lubricate this hole, allowing him to easily slide the tip of his finger inside. It is unexpectedly arousing to touch her this way.

She tenses around him, and he thinks she's about to tell him to stop, but she suddenly increases the volume of her moans and he once again feels her whole body tighten around him as she reaches her peak again. This time, the combination of sensations pushes him over the edge, too, and he collapses on top of her as waves of orgasmic bliss wash over him.

He thinks he might have passed out because when he next opens his eyes, he's on his back and Penny is curled against him, kissing his neck softly.

"Hello," he whispers, drawing her attention to his face. She smiles widely before letting out a yawn. "I assume that was satisfactory for you?"

"Yeah," she answers, yawning again. "Very, very satisfactory." She lays her head on his shoulder before quietly asking, "Do you want to stay here tonight? I have a spare toothbrush...still in the package."

He is startled by the question, not having truly considered the idea of sleeping in her bed. He finds, however, that he does not want to leave her.

"I...yes," he answers.

[Next time: More practice. It's quite short and will be up very soon.]


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Because I am a terrible, horrible person. (But a terrible, horrible person with a plan. Mua ha ha.) And I'll rush the next chapter, I promise, especially since it's the first of a 3-parter.

Thank you for reviewing. :)

**Friday January 9th 3:13am**

She wakes during the night to feel him sucking on the back of her neck from their spooned positions.

"Sheldon," she sighs his name and tilts her head, allowing him better access to the rest of her neck. He takes it, and also begins to greedily palm her breasts, stroking her until her nipples are aching before grasping the little nubs between his fingers. His lips grow more rough on her neck as they both fully wake up, and the tender kisses become bites. Each spot that his teeth sink into seems directly connected to her core, and she can feel herself growing wet and aching.

She's never realized how sensitive her neck is.

Grasping one of Sheldon's hands in her own, pulling it sadly away from her breast, she leads him to her mound, where he slides his fingers downwards and moans at the wetness he encounters.

They don't speak as she rolls further onto her front and raises her leg, opening herself up to him. It takes Sheldon a moment to figure out his role, but he soon slides inside of her, partly spooning her and partly on top of her.

The pressure of him all around her is wonderful, as is his shallow thrusting. It feels like they stay this way for hours, his cock inside of her, stoking fires, not giving quite enough friction to bring her to orgasm, just enjoying a supremely intimate moment. Some unknowable amount of time later, his hand slides from its grasp on her breast to touch her clit, and the now-practiced motion of his fingers, squeezing in conjunction with rubbing, has her falling over the edge in moments. He follows her, biting down on her neck once more as he shudders.

They shift so that he lies flat on his back and she curls around him, her head on his shoulder. She smiles into his chest when his arm wraps protectively around her before they pass out again.

When she wakes up, she's alone.

They don't speak again for almost three days.

[Next time: _All the drama_. (That's not saying much...I'm not that big a fan of writing drama, to be honest.) I'll try to get the first part of it up by tomorrow.]


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N:** Part 1 of 3. (It's broken up because of perspective shifts.) Sorry the last chapter was so short and cliffy. Sorry, also, if this one is too much the same way. Next chapter is loooooong and shortly to follow. There is a method to my madness.

**Background**: I always thought Leonard seemed to actually care about his (male) friends before season 3, when he seemingly forgot why he was even friends with any of them. So I really think that, especially if Sheldon were very sad, Leonard would find it in his heart to be nice. (That doesn't mean he totally accepts the relationship, though.)

Thanks for reviewing. :)

**Sunday January 11th 8:27pm**

"Come on, Sheldon," Leonard bangs on his bedroom door for the twelfth time since yesterday. "Howard and Raj are here. Raj is even going to eat Indian food! I got Tandoori Palace..."

"I'm not coming out," Sheldon announces for the twelfth time since he locked himself in the bedroom the previous night, exactly twenty four hours and twelve minutes ago, minus thirteen minutes and twenty four seconds when he performed a harried version of his morning ablutions and thirty seven seconds when he relieved himself while Leonard was procuring the Indian food. He has eaten three of his dehydrated ration bars, a seventh of his supply, and while part of him is horrified at abusing his emergency provisions, he finds it a preferable alternative to forced socializing. If he were to leave his room, he would have to pretend not to be in severe emotional distress, and he does not have the mental fortitude to attempt such a ruse.

He had woken up in Penny's bed on Friday morning and returned home in order to use his own bathroom, fully intending on returning. In the course of performing his regular routine, though, several thoughts had occurred to him, the primary one being that he had failed to consider any form of contraception. He could have _impregnated_ her. Rather quickly, he had abandoned this fear — deciding to trust that Penny had likely considered the possibility — and it was replaced by disgust with himself for succumbing to base urges without thinking through the logical consequences.

He might have become as bad as Leonard.

He had spent most of Friday and Saturday in a near-comatose state on the couch, cleverly tricking Leonard into vacating the apartment by faking an illness. Alone, without any distractions or forced social interaction, he had examined his feelings about Penny and their new relationship paradigm. Slowly, his feelings of disgust with himself melted into considerations of Penny and the pleasure she brought to his life.

Reconciling his disgust at his low level of logical thinking with his desire to expand his relationship with Penny had continued to elude him when he gathered his laundry on Saturday at 8:15. Upon opening the door, he came face to face with Penny and could feel the blood dilate the capillaries on his face. He looked down into his laundry basket, unsure what to say to her, only to hear her door slam shut.

Suddenly, what had seem complicated became crystal clear to him, but too late.

Penny is clearly angry with him, and perhaps disappointed with their sexual encounter. The sex had been deep for Sheldon, as much about an emotional connection as physical pleasure. This was particularly true of afterward, when she cuddled with him, and during the night when he woke up hard against her and she moved with him as he took her again, half asleep. It had left him feeling vulnerable in a way that is completely alien.

Leonard bangs on the door again.

"Will you let me come in and talk to you, then? Please?" Leonard's voice is annoyingly high pitched and Sheldon wants him to go away. But if he hasn't gone away after twelve unsuccessful attempts at knocking, he probably won't until they talk. Sheldon rises from his bed and unlocks the door, allowing Leonard to enter his room without comment.

Leonard stands in his doorway for what seems like an eternity, watching as Sheldon returns to the fetal position on his bed.

"This is about Penny, right? Did something happen with Penny?" Sheldon bristles at his roommate's confrontational tone, but he knows that the anger is coming from not just jealousy but worry, too. He tries hard to overlook the jealousy.

"I am not currently able to follow the social protocol wherein I pretend that your feelings matter to me, Leonard. Penny is not your girlfriend, and she never has been. You are correct in your assessment that my current emotional state is due to my interactions with her. If you are not capable of discussing this in a rational manner, you should leave." Sheldon keeps his tone flat, neutral, his face pointed at the wall away from Leonard. He can almost feel his roommate drop his anger.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" He can hear something — fear, he thinks, anxiety — in Leonard's voice, and he assumes that Leonard will be heartbroken to learn of the events of Thursday night. He also assumes that Leonard will be pleased that whatever may have come from that relationship is clearly dead.

"Penny and I engaged in coitus. Now she won't talk to me."

"_You_...had _sex_...with _Penny_?" Sheldon scoffs silently to himself. He hates it when people repeat what he has just said.

"Yes. I had sex with Penny. Twice if you're only considering vaginal intercourse." Sheldon does an admirable job of keeping his tone neutral, but it starts to slip into sadness as he continues. "And now she won't talk to me." His breath hitches, and he's worried he will start crying again. He despises crying. He keeps his gaze pointed away from Leonard, and he wonders if his best friend will abandon him, too, now that he knows.

"Look, Sheldon," he can hear that Leonard wants to be angry, but he's also aware that his friend is holding back the anger because he cares. "I'm sure it's not like that. I'm sure the sex was just a little awkward and everything will work itself out."

"It was far from awkward," Sheldon whispers, and he can hear Leonard take in a deep breath.

"So, you didn't fall into bed drunk. This was premeditated?" Leonard's voice is getting high pitched again, like it does sometimes when he's irritated or angry, and Sheldon heaves a sigh.

"I believe I am in love with her." The words slip past Sheldon's lips before he can consider them, and he is surprised to find that they feel true. Very true. The twisting sensation in his stomach, which has been there constantly since he awoke in Penny's bed, gets worse. "I am in love with her and she won't talk to me."

Sheldon is surprised when Leonard comes into his line of vision, having walked around his bed. He seats himself on the floor, looking up at him earnestly. Gone is the man from whom he felt the need to hide his relationship with Penny, in his place is his best friend. "Tell me what happened." Some of the weight that has settled on Sheldon's chest lifts.

"Our relationship paradigm shifted," Sheldon begins, "when she gave me that napkin. We began spending more time together, and she began touching me with greater frequency and intimacy. I did not realize at first what was happening, only that I enjoyed it, but in the last week we began to...be involved in more sexual ways. This culminated in coitus on Thursday night and again early Friday morning. It was..." Sheldon breaks off speaking, a ragged breath belying his carefully neutral tone. "It was good, Leonard. It was...good does not begin to describe it." Sheldon closes his eyes, reliving the feeling of her in his arms. "When I woke up on Friday morning, I began to feel incredibly nervous. My stomach hurt, and continues to hurt, and I came home while she was still asleep. She has not sought out my company since then. When I tried to speak to her yesterday, she slipped into her apartment and shut the door before I had the chance."

He opens his eyes and sees Leonard's face. He thinks his friend looks sad, and he wonders what the full content of his sadness must be. While Sheldon does not believe that Leonard's feelings for Penny are anywhere near his own, he is also aware that Leonard has harbored some sort of feelings towards her.

"I'm sure this has been a misunderstanding, Sheldon," Leonard tells him. "Women don't like it when you leave them the morning after you've had sex. Penny is probably sitting in her apartment feeling like you don't want to be with her." Sheldon sits up at his words.

"Do you really believe that is a possibility?" The pain in his stomach reasserts itself after the brief moment of hope. He wilts, tossing away Leonard's suggestion. "I have come to the conclusion that the pain I am experiencing is the physical manifestation of my emotional turmoil over the fact that Penny cannot possibly feel towards me the depth of emotion that I feel towards her. Regardless of why we have not spoken, I believe this will continue to be the case."

As though the case is settled, Sheldon returns to the his position and Leonard stands up, walks out of the room, and closes the door behind him.

[Next time: Part II of Sunday January 11th. Penny and Sheldon work through their misunderstanding. *nudge nudge, wink wink* Also, don't get mad at me for being semi-nice about Leonard. This is really how I think he'd act towards Sheldon in this time period...his behavior towards Penny is another matter entirely. (I really, really dislike the way Leonard relates to Penny.)]


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N**: Part II of Sunday, January 11th. Because emotional conversations go best with mildly kinky sex. Amiright? Fun fact: I've written dozens of sex scenes, and I'm pretty sure this is the longest one I've ever done. (This chapter makes me blush, y'all, and it takes kind of a lot to make me blush.)

Thanks for reviews. :) And if you've favorited my story, leave a review and say hi. :)

**Sunday January 11th 8:42pm**

[Last time: Leonard left Sheldon's room, leaving Sheldon in the fetal position on his bed, after hearing that Sheldon and Penny had sex.]

"I hear you and Sheldon had sex," Leonard announces as Penny's door swings open. She's wearing an oversized t-shirt and sweats, her hair pulled back into a messy bun — everything about her screams of her depression.

"I'm not in the mood to pretend like I care about your feelings right now, Leonard," Penny growls at him, preparing to slam the door in his face. He holds up his hands in surrender, and can't quite hold back a sad smile.

"That's almost exactly what Sheldon said." Penny closes her eyes at this, and Leonard keeps talking, obviously knowing this is going to be short. "Look, Sheldon is terrified that you hate him. He didn't realize the extent to which his leaving the morning after would...hurt. He's nervous and completely in love with you."

The thought of Sheldon at home worrying that she doesn't care for him brings her destructive cycle of the past three days to a sudden halt. Of course Sheldon doesn't know what the hell he's doing, of course he doesn't know how to handle all the things people _feel _after sex. She's been wavering back and forth between being hurt (and pissed, and sad) and wondering if she should seek him out, and she suddenly feels terrible for not cornering him and forcing him to talk to her earlier.

Leonard actually looks kind of sweet as he watches her, but his eyes suddenly turn hard, and he gives her what she thinks is an attempt at a threatening look. "And I just came to tell you that if you don't feel the same towards him, then you need to back off."

She's immediately angry at Leonard for assuming the worst about her, for what she assumes is a dig about his belief that she has strung him along for the past year and a half (whatever). But at the same time, it's good to know that she won't be the catalyst that ends Leonard and Sheldon's friendship, nor will she and Sheldon need to worry too much about the possible consequences with their friends. There's still a lot to navigate, and it isn't over, but it makes her smile for the first time since she woke up alone on Friday. The thought of making Sheldon lose Leonard had been weighing heavier on her heart than she had realized, and despite her annoyance with Leonard she's suddenly ridiculously happy.

"I'm sorry we didn't tell you sooner," she whispers, putting aside her annoyance with him. She leans in and hugs him, kissing his cheek softly before darting across the hall, into his apartment, leaving him standing at her open door.

Penny races past Raj and Howard, who are seated on the couch, barely registering their presence on her way to Sheldon's room. She tries the knob, and when she finds it unlocked, she steps inside and closes it behind her. He's huddled in a ball on his bed, facing the other direction, and she watches him silently for a moment.

"I told you, I don't want Indian food."

"I'm not here about Indian food," she says, and Sheldon scrambles quickly from his bed, leaving the otherwise neatly made covers rumpled.

"Penny," he whispers her name, and she can see how much he doesn't believe it's her.

"We have some stuff to talk about, Sheldon." She keeps her voice mostly level, but tries to let him see the emotion in her eyes. He nods his agreement and takes a seat on his bed, inviting her to do the same. She does, and they sit indian style, facing each other. There's a long silence — she's not sure how to break it — and then he starts talking.

"We never discussed contraception," Sheldon whispers, his eyes on the covers. "I thought of it the morning after, and it...scared me."

"Sweetie," Penny clears her throat, "I'm clean. I was last at the, um, doctor just before I met Dave, and I have never," she fumbles for a word, feeling awkward, "been with a man without a condom before. You have nothing to worry about."

"I was more concerned about the possibility of pregnancy," he whispers.

"I'm on the pill, also, Sheldon. And I guess I thought that since you had never done it before that it would be perfectly safe to not wear a condom. I am...I am really sorry that we didn't have this talk earlier, though. I don't want you to think that I didn't consider it. I did."

"I did not," Sheldon whispers, and she leans forward to take his hand.

"You had a lot of other things to think about, though."

"I am still ashamed of the fact that I raced into intercourse without even considering possible repercussions." His eyes are still on the bedspread, and Penny reaches forward with the hand not grasping his and touches his chin.

"It was understandable, and it turned out fine. It's..._illogical_ to beat yourself up over it." Sheldon's eyes snap up to hers and he cracks a smile at her language.

"I'm glad you like Spock," he mumbles shyly, turning his palm under hers so their fingers link together.

"Oh, Sheldon," she shakes her head, her smile growing and turning watery. "I love Spock."

"Penny," he searches her eyes desperately at her words. "Penny, I..." She cuts him off with a kiss, though, and he responds in kind, pulling her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her back tightly. He eventually breaks their kiss and buries his face in the juncture of her neck and shoulder. "I apologize for leaving you on Friday morning. I was in a state of extreme emotional distress, but I still should have given greater consideration to your feelings."

"It'll be okay, sweetie," Penny whispers into his ear, hugging him tightly to her.

"Before...the events of Thursday, our time together was extremely important to me, and I found myself preferring your company to that of anyone else. Afterward..." Sheldon stops to take a breath. "I have always known that intercourse is supposed to be an emotionally evocative experience — that is much of the reason that I have chosen to abstain — but I didn't expect it to leave me as open and vulnerable as it did. I woke up on Friday morning feeling like I had given a piece of myself to you. And the thought of you rejecting me was among the most horrific things I could imagine."

"I felt the same way, Sheldon," Penny kisses the top of his head before pulling his face out of her shoulder, forcing him to meet her eyes. "We shared something special. I promise you, it was special. I thought you were rejecting me when you left." He looks horrified at the possibility.

"I would never..."

"Shhh," she cuts him off, placing a finger over his lips. "We're okay now, right?"

He tilts his head as he looks at her, and she smiles at him softly.

"I believe that I am falling in love you," he whispers, and she smiles, because it's way too soon to use the "L" word and normally this is the kind of thing that freaks her out, but she also understands where he's coming from and how much he doesn't understand everything he's feeling.

"I'm glad. Because I think I could fall in love with you."

The weight of three days of stress and sadness evaporates as they kiss again, the sweetness quickly becoming harried as she slips her tongue past his lips. He breaks the kiss for long enough to pull her dirty, oversized t-shirt past her head, and she reaches behind her back to remove her bra. Once she's topless, she peels his layers of shirts over his head and then reclaims his lips, relearning him slowly.

"Take off your pants okay?" Penny whispers against his mouth as she stands from the bed, sending her sweatpants and panties to the floor without a second thought. She's sitting naked on the bed as Sheldon removes his socks, placing them neatly next to the shoes lined up by the bed, and lets his pants and underwear fall to the floor. "Sit down, just like you were," Penny instructs, and Sheldon re-folds his legs, once again facing Penny. His eyes widen when she slides from the bed into his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist, keeping his erection cradled between their bodies.

The intimacy of their position increases as he wraps his arms around her torso, bending over her so his head is buried in her neck and she feels completely engulfed by him. They spend many long minutes like this, cuddling each other, kissing each other, and enjoying the physical closeness.

"I have missed your presence terribly," Sheldon tells her in between firm kisses up and down her neck.

"I missed you, too, sweetie," she replies, her breath hitching with emotion as she remembers sobbing on her couch. "I missed you a lot."

"I find myself wanting to make the irrational promise that we will not ever spend so much time apart again." His kisses have progressed to the soft nips he'd discovered on Thursday, and her head falls backwards, exposing as much of her neck as possible.

"We can...God, Sheldon," she moans as he finds an incredibly sensitive spot just under her ear. "We can promise that as long as we're both here and not, like, out of town or something, that we won't go so long without seeing each other." He nods against her, humming what sounds like assent.

"I'll draw up a contract this week," he whispers against the base of her throat, and she kind of wants to laugh because she's been waiting for this. She's sort of surprised that it hasn't happened already, but then, she guesses that all unclear emotions of the past few weeks has made contracts difficult. Now that they've reached this place where he's not going out on an emotional limb, it makes sense. And _hell no _she's not signing a contract, but a discussion about expectations — maybe even writing some of that stuff down — that's probably a really good idea. It might give them a chance to discuss all the issues that couples tend to face so he's not flying blind.

"We'll talk about it, okay?" she finally answers.

"I would feel most comfortable if we could do so at the earliest possible occasion." He sounds so nervous, and Penny tightens her hold around his shoulders and tilts her head to meet his lips.

"Tomorrow, after Thai food, we'll sit down and talk, okay?" He nods, his lips seeking hers again greedily as his arms tighten around her further.

"I have never been in a relationship like this before," he mumbles, and Penny is hit with the image of Ramona pumicing his toe, and has to shake it off. "I know it is not normal to have a contract." And holy crap on a cracker, when has Sheldon ever been this freaking nervous and vulnerable?

Since he's worried about pleasing her and she's 'normal,' maybe. Since he's naked in her arms, maybe. Since she's his first everything, maybe.

"Sheldon," she whispers his name, "I understand; you don't have to explain." She kisses him firmly, trying to calm him. "You know what _is_ normal? Sitting down and talking about issues and expectations in a relationship, okay? It's so, so normal, and we really, really should have done it before we had sex." She kisses him again as she feels him relax against her. "And if we agree that I have to organize my dvds, and that you have to go to new restaurants once in awhile, then that's good, too."

"You would let me apply a particular organizational paradigm to your apartment?" The soft bites he has been peppering over her neck grow firmer, starting at the base of her neck and moving up towards her ear, making her squirm so that his erection slides against her. And she should be weirded out that her...boyfriend...is turned on by the thought of cleaning her apartment, but his teeth feel really, really good.

She shifts her hips against him, rubbing her slit against his erection, and he groans in her ear.

"Do that again," he whispers before biting down on her neck just under her earlobe, a spot that is apparently directly linked to her very core.

"Shit, Sheldon," she moans loudly at the feel of her sex pulsing, as she rubs herself against him slowly as he continues to nip at her neck.

"I want to have intercourse now." He rasps the words to her shoulder several minutes later, when she's dripping wet and aching, and something about the raw need behind the clinical language makes her shiver with pleasure.

Instead of answering, she uses her grasp on his shoulders to shift up and reaches between them to hold his cock and guide it towards her. As she sinks down onto him, they both groan loudly.

In this position, he can only urge her to rock her hips, but the intimacy and the way the slight movements bring them together just right has her panting quickly. Sheldon shifts under her, around her, and one arm slides down her back to cup her butt, the other maneuvers between them to press against her clit. Suddenly she's _there_, and she moans his name loudly as she shudders against him, the hard, unmoving erection lodged inside of her only intensifies the feeling.

"Penny." It's a moan of pleasure, and she realizes that her orgasm also gave him stimulation. "How many times can I bring you to orgasm this way before it is no longer pleasurable for you?"

"What?" She can't quite wrap her head around the question.

"That..." He trails off in his explanation as she shifts against him, both gasping in a breath. "That was very enjoyable for me." His voice is just a whisper, and both hands are cupping her ass firmly, pulling her against him as close as she can get. "I want to know your limit – how many times can you achieve orgasm through direct clitoral stimulation before further stimulation becomes uncomfortable?"

No one has ever asked her something like this before; despite his clinical language, it's the most erotic question she's ever encountered, particularly as she can feel him inside of her, and the thought of it strikes her mute. She can't seem to make a sound until he bites her neck again, making her moan as her vaginal muscles clench in response.

"Penny," Sheldon groans her name, squeezing her ass hard and rocking her against him.

"I don't know," she whispers her answer into his chest as he moves her against him. "It depends, I guess." She can feel him smile against her neck before he bites down.

"So there are many variables," he whispers into her neck, panting with the exertion and pleasure of moving her body against his. "I propose an experiment." The words are whispered into her ear, and Dr. Dave fucking Underhill said something similar to her less than a month ago, so the reminder should make her shudder in horror. But that experiment involved tequila and unmemorable sex. This is Sheldon telling her that he's going to try to make her orgasm until she can't take it any more. It's the most erotic situation she's ever been in, and she moans her assent. Immediately, his fingers are back on her clit, and she gasps loudly.

"Yes!" To the experiment, to the sensations he's creating in her. He has her falling over the edge again quickly, and it's strange to hear him moaning, too, without coming so affected by her orgasm.

His hands are once more on her ass, rocking her against him and kneading the flesh. It's a low-grade pleasurable feeling: hitting her just right, expanding on the lingering tremors of her last orgasm, making her feel deliriously happy and a little out of it, but not enough stimulation to take her over the edge again any time soon.

His arms are really strong, she thinks. He's much stronger than his lanky frame lets on and is currently supporting most of her weight, doing more of the work than _Cosmo _says he should do in this position. It's making him sweat, which is actually really hot. She's never seen him sweaty before.

His hands on her butt are squeezing, exploring her flesh, touching her in a way that's unexpectedly pleasurable.

"Are you an ass man, Sheldon?" She asks the question to the base of his throat before sucking on the skin there.

He pulls back enough to give her a raised eyebrow in response.

"Do you know how sexy it is when you do the Spock eyebrow?" She sighs the question, sliding an arm from around his shoulders to trace a finger along the eyebrow. He raises it again at her response, and she giggles. Her laughter makes her shake against him, and he gasps at the sensation, murmuring her name as she stills.

"In response to your original query...I am unsure of the definition of 'ass man.' Is that some sort of derogatory colloquialism?" She giggles again, and as he moans at her body's motion against his, she leans in to kiss him deeply. His hands knead the flesh of her buttocks as they kiss and he continues to rock her hips against him, his breath hitching in her mouth.

"That," she whispers, wiggling against his hands and making them both gasp loudly at the change of sensation in their connection. "You like asses."

"I've never considered myself drawn to a particular body part in the abstract," he answers, managing to keep his tone straight and calm. But he drops his head down to her neck as she wiggles against him again, and he draws in a shaky breath and squeezes her ass. "I must admit to being drawn to _your_ posterior, though," he says quietly into the crook of her neck. He bites down, and they both gasp at her response.

She wonders if he's nervous about this admission when his hands slide away from her ass, but then his left hand moves up her back and his right moves in between them again. This time, he pushes her body backwards, supporting her weight with his left hand on her back, and he manages to keep her hips rocking against his as he brings the fingers of his right hand back to her clitoris. This angle of penetration is better, much more intense; she gasps loudly and he smirks down at her, even though his body is rigid with control. She can see beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead as they move together, and then she can't see anything as she calls out his name.

"Shit, Sheldon," she groans as he pulls her body back against his, his hands once again slipping down to cup her ass and keep her moving against him. She shudders against him when he bites her neck again, and he groans in her ear. His chest is slick with sweat, not just from moving her but from holding himself so rigidly, stopping himself from giving into the pleasure that he's bringing her. She moans at the thought and rubs against him; the way they slide against each other as he pulls her hips against his is incredibly sexy.

"Are you offended that I seem to be an 'ass man,' Penny?" He asks the question against her neck, followed by another bite.

"N-n-no," she shudders against him and he moans his pleasure at her movements in her ear.

"You have a particularly lovely 'ass,'" he whispers, and she's not sure if the shiver down her spine is from the way he tightens his grip, or the sound of Sheldon emphasizing 'ass,' a slight East Texas twang coloring the vowel. "It is quite firm, but the skin is extremely soft," he continues, and his words seem to trickle down her spine, making her pulse around his cock. "It is perfectly round, and the curve of your spine above it makes it appear even more full." As if to demonstrate his point, one hand slides up from her ass along the curve of her back, and she shudders against him.

Once again they both groan, and she realizes that her back is covered with a thin sheen of perspiration that makes his hand slip up and down sensually. As his hand returns to her butt, he lets his fingers dip into the crack, and despite the shudder that she can't contain, she tenses against him.

"I don't like _that_, though," she tries to tell him, irritated that the words come out as a breathy moan. She rolls her eyes when she's met by a little laugh. "I'm being serious, Sheldon." She tries to give him a serious face even though her insides are fluttering on the edge of another orgasm, and it's broken by a gasp as he moves her against him just right.

"Oh, that wasn't sarcasm?" She shakes her head and he nods his understanding. "Then you are simply mistaken."

"Excuse me?" She summons up the serious face again, but it's shattered when he leans her backwards and presses his index and middle fingers against her clit; the orgasm hits her before he even has a chance to move those fingers. She manages to look at his face as her orgasm subsides and is astounded by the look of immense concentration, his jaw clenched hard, even more sweat beading on his brow and making his hair look wet. She reaches a hand into his hair and finds that it _is_ wet.

She watches him swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing with the movement as he regains his composure. People who have only had sex twice are not supposed to be able to do this, it occurs to her. People who have had sex a million times can't do this. Sheldon is obviously some sort of sex God for some reason, and that thought sets her off again, even without direct stimulation.

"Penny," he grunts her name, obviously unprepared for the continued assault, and his grip slips to her hips to hold her steady, trying to keep his control the best he can. His fingers dig in, hard, as his jaw clenches tightly as he pants loudly. She thinks she'll have bruises where he's digging his fingers in, so hard it hurts, and she finds the idea ridiculously erotic.

"Holy shit, Sheldon," she calls loudly, throwing her head back at the combined pleasure inside of her and the pain of his fingers on her hips.

She collapses against him, his cock still rock hard inside of her, and the combination of cooling sweat on her skin and his breathless pants in her ear makes her entire body erupt in goosebumps.

"Holy shit, Sheldon," she murmurs again, into his sweaty chest, still trying to regulate her breathing and calm the shivers running up and down her spine.

"As I was saying," he continues, and the only way she can tell that he's affected by this is the sweat dripping from his brow and his fingers still digging hard into her hips, forcing her to stay still — otherwise, he seems to have mastered himself. "You are mistaken about your sexual response to anal stimulation." His voice quivers slightly, but sounds authoritative nonetheless. She's both annoyed and embarrassed by his wording, and she pulls back so she can see his face.

"You don't get to lecture me about my own sexual preferences." It takes effort to speak normally, and she doesn't remotely succeed. She's trying to be mad about a guy, any guy, telling her she's wrong about what she likes and doesn't like. She _is_ mad. But she's also pressed against a sweat-drenched sex God who's made her orgasm more times than she ever has, and he's still hard inside of her. And the thought of his fingers leaving marks on her hips that will show over her low-rise jeans is hotter than it should be.

"Of course I do," he answers curtly, cutting off further argument by biting her neck when she tries to respond, silencing her as they both react to her body's movement against him. "Penny," he pulls back and looks down at her seriously. "I am a scientist." She rolls her eyes at him and clenches her vaginal muscles, making them both moan. "I base my understanding of reality on observation and logical extrapolation. The views of a scientist can be upsetting to people who cling to social mores and biases rather than observable fact." He nods, and it occurs to her that it's entirely unfair that he be this in control of his mental faculties. She pulses her vaginal muscles around him again, making each squeeze as hard as she can, and he collapses around her, his face in her neck, his fingers still clutching her hips, digging in so hard it hurts, his bent torso cocooning her. "Good Lord, woman," he groans softly, and he doesn't speak for several minutes as she rocks against him, leaving them both panting with exertion.

"You were saying?" She manages to look up at him with a cheeky grin, and he kisses her. Hard. Both hands leave her hips in order to cup her face, and it's as though he's trying to devour her. When he pulls away, they're both breathless, and he nuzzles the top of her head.

"It is not my aim to offend you or to do anything to make you uncomfortable," Sheldon whispers into her hair, his breath uneven. "But on Thursday night, anal stimulation was the most direct trigger for your last orgasm, and you clearly felt pleasure, albeit with a some measure of fear, when I touched you earlier. I do not understand why you would deny yourself something in which you obviously take pleasure with the small minded argument that objective reality is somehow wrong."

"Look, Sheldon," she sighs, trying to figure out what to say to him. "I tried anal sex once and I really, really didn't like it. And I don't want..." He cuts her off with a kiss.

"Penny," he sighs against her mouth. "I am a scientist." She leans back to see his eyes, and the angle makes her quiver, wringing a gasp from somewhere deep inside her. His eyes scrunch closed, she can see him gathering willpower, his jaw clenching as he grips her hips again with bruising force, moving her against him before one hand slips around to circle her clit. The thought of those finger shaped bruises on her hips, of a tangible marker of this night, is almost as arousing as the physical stimulation he's giving her.

"Oh, God, Sheldon," she pants her mantra from Thursday night repeatedly, getting louder as her orgasm approaches. When it finally hits, she can't help the way she almost screams it. He holds her still against his sweaty chest for a long time before looking down at her.

"That was the best one so far," Sheldon smirks against her mouth as he kisses her, his hands returning to their preferred spot on her ass, and she's once again surprised by the phenomenon of Sheldon Cooper acting like a regular, cocky guy. It's sort of hot. "I enjoy it when you change your exclamations from profanity to to pleas towards a deity." His lips soften as she kisses him, her body pliant against his.

"Mmmhmmm," is all she can manage to moan, her body still throbbing from her orgasm. She wonders if this is her limit. This might be her limit.

"Once again, Penny, I am a physicist." And she rolls her eyes into his neck because she's almost lost the ability to speak and he's still going. That'll teach her for giving him something to argue about in bed. "I am exacting about the variables in every observation I make, and I only extrapolate when the data clearly calls for me to do so. When I tell you that I have observed your obvious pleasure at the feeling of my finger against and just inside your anus, I am referring only to that. There is nothing to suggest that deeper penetration or stretching of the sphincter would enhance your enjoyment in any way."

"What do you want, Sheldon?" She's exhausted and tired of listening to him say 'anus,' and she just wants to enjoy the bliss of this experience. A drop of sweat slides from his jaw down his neck, and she raises a hand to wipe it away before closing her lips against his jaw. He moans at her lips on his throat and dips his head towards her in response, so that his labored breaths puff just under her ear.

"I want you to let me pleasure you," he whispers, and she can't stop the groan that escapes at his words, nor the shudder that runs up her spine. She thinks her goosebumps got goosebumps.

"God, Sheldon," she mutters against his neck. And maybe _this_ is the most erotic moment of her life.

His hands squeeze her ass, encouraging her to begin rocking against him again. She complies, and quickly the sated feeling of a moment ago is gone, replaced by a burning need for _more_. Every time she cums it's better than the last, and she's sort of in awe of what the next one could be.

As if he senses the exact moment when she's aroused enough to continue, he slides a single finger down her ass crack in tandem with his tongue tracing the ridges of her ear.

"Relax," he whispers to her as his finger brushes across her asshole, making her gasp and shiver against him. She can feel how slick it is thanks to her dripping arousal and sweat, and she tries to relax as his well manicured finger pushes slightly inside. She groans loudly and moves against him faster, enjoying the slight penetration and trusting him not to push her further than this. He manages to twist his wrists so he's supporting her ass while the finger stays barely lodged inside, and he helps her recline to the best angle and move against him in short quick motions that have them both panting.

"Oh, _fuck_, Sheldon," she moans, repeating this new mantra as the strength of this orgasm builds. The rapt look on his face tells her that he has no hope of controlling himself this time, and she pulls his head down to kiss him as they move together, sending them toppling backwards on the bed.

He's now on top of her, and after an awkward second or two of rearranging her legs over his shoulders, he rolls with the new position, thrusting hard into her, with his finger still lodged underneath her. She's still panting against his mouth, aware that some combination of his name and 'fuck' is falling from her lips with every thrust, getting louder as he moves faster because this is _good_. Her whole body is covered with goosebumps, the radiating pleasure of his hips moving against hers is tingling in her fingers and toes, their sweaty bodies slip against each other erotically, his open mouth slides against her face and neck because he's lost the coordination to kiss her, his finger tip is still inside of her in a way that she didn't even know she liked.

"Oh, fucking _God,_ Sheldon!" It _is_ a scream this time. Her voice breaks under the stress of it, and his finger slides out of her as she lowers her legs enough to wrap them around his waist, riding out the waves of her orgasm and letting him reclaim his other hand to support himself as he pumps into her at a frantic pace, clearly on the cusp of his own release.

He's silent as he's wracked with his own orgasm, but his head is thrown back, his mouth open in what looks to be a tortured scream. She thinks his lips form her name.

He basically falls on top of her, as though his body just gives out, and really, when she thinks back to the way his face was so intense, his body so rigid, his jaw clenched so tightly, when he was holding back before, it's not surprising that he would collapse. She's able to shift so that he's not crushing her, and she cradles his head against her breasts and wraps her legs more tightly around his waist, stroking his sweaty hair and holding him to her as he comes back to himself. She's not sure how long they spend like this, but it feels too good to her to care.

"I would benefit from a shower," he sighs, a lifetime later, against the nipple that he's been softly, mindlessly sucking on, and she can't hold back a deep belly laugh at what is so obviously an understatement. The sweat that was such a turn-on a few minutes ago is now just...sweat.

"We should..." And she cuts herself off from saying they should go get in the shower because they aren't in her apartment. They're in his apartment, and when she came in, Leonard, Raj, and Howard were preparing to do something dorky in the living room. Sheldon seems to understand the reason that her muscles suddenly tense underneath him.

"If you are worried about Leonard, Wolowitz, and Koothrappali, it is a non-issue. Apparently I said something inappropriate after overhearing Leonard and Stephanie, and Leonard appealed for a change in the roommate agreement. The official rule stipulates that in the event that one roommate achieves coitus, the other roommate should either leave the apartment or employ noise-canceling headphones." Penny nods, still unsure, since she knows full well that Leonard never imagined that he would be on the other side of that agreement. Still, though, she tries to relax as Sheldon pushes himself off of her, laying a soft kiss on her lips as he rolls to the side, giving her the freedom to stand up.

"We should sneak over to my apartment," Penny offers, forcing her exhausted body into a standing position. "We can shower there, and my sheets are clean." She looks down at the sweaty, tangled mess of cotton on Sheldon's bed as he, too, rises to his feet slowly, clearly finding it difficult to stand.

"Agreed."

"But Sheldon." She pauses, waiting for him to look at her before continuing. "If you're not there when I wake up tomorrow morning I will hogtie and castrate you."

His response is to pull her into a hug, placing a soft kiss on her lips. "I have no desire to leave you, Penny," he promises, and she smiles, bringing a gentle hand to his cheek. "Why would I want to leave someone with whom I am falling in love?"

The talk of love brings her up short.

"I've only used the "L" word with one person," she looks into his eyes seriously, wanting him to understand the importance of this, "and I spent four years forgiving a lot of unforgivable stuff because of it." She can tell that he's aware that this person is Kurt.

"Did you love him?" Sheldon asks, and she wishes she could read the emotions behind his eyes better.

"I thought I did at the time," she answers, turning her eyes to the floor. "But I was stupid. I promised myself, after him, that I would be more careful with my emotions. And that I would never say it if I wasn't sure." He nods, looking less offended by her words than some men might. "But this...Sheldon, this is different. This could be something good." His eyes light up at that.

"I _am_ falling in love with you, Penny." His words are quiet, and he cups her face in his hands, holding her gaze. "Part of me is aware that it is merely a chemical reaction in my brain, something I have never considered particularly romantic."

"I think you can't know it's love until those chemicals have worn off," she tells him quietly. "That's when you figure out if there's something else there."

He kisses her, softly, and her eyes slip closed.

"Yes, I can understand that. I suppose I also feel that I am already aware that there is 'something else here.' It is the combination of the chemical reaction in my brain with my preexisting regard for you and the assurance I feel that you are a logically ideal match for me that makes it...more."

"Logically ideal match?" She's surprised to hear him say that. Her issue when it came to Leonard, aside from the way it felt like she was on a date with her short, awkward cousin, had been the feeling that his ideal match should be a scientist, or at least someone smarter than she is. "Shouldn't your logically ideal match be a scientist?"

"On the contrary." He shakes his head as though he's actually put thought into this question, and his hands slide up and down her back as he speaks. "My IQ places me beyond the level of genius, Penny." She grins up at him, shaking her head because he didn't say it to brag...he's just stating a fact. And when did that become sexy? "Another scientist might be good for Leonard, as his work is at a level that allows him to discuss it. But it does not work that way for me."

She's thought about this before and come to the conclusion that maybe they work because he comes from a family of normal people — not brainiacs, like Leonard's family. The only people he's ever loved, his mother and his Meemaw, are normal women with normal IQs. But she thinks he's also saying that he just generally does better when he can relate to people for reasons that have nothing to do with science. And even if he was dating a lady scientist, he wouldn't be able to talk to her about physics stuff.

"Women in the science fields have, without exception, proven to be poor matches, as there is either an unhealthy level of reverence for my intelligence, or of genuine animosity and unfriendly competition." He pauses, seeming to just enjoy the way his hands slide against her still-damp skin. "I have come to the conclusion that an ideal match for me requires a particular personality type, and must be someone who is not interested in either being my servant nor in disproving my theories." He smiles down at her, and this might be the most stupidly romantic moment of her life, naked with Sheldon Cooper. "You make me happy," he tells her quietly, "in a way I did not believe I could be."

"You don't wish I was smarter, though? Like, so I could talk to you about science stuff?" Because Penny can't just take a romantic moment at face value.

"In the first place, you are perfectly smart, simply uneducated, which, while undesirable, is something you could remedy if you chose to do so." She's not sure how she feels about this answer, remembers Leonard patronizingly handing her a Community College brochure, telling her simultaneously that she should have a degree and that he would hold no respect for it. Sheldon stops her from pulling away, slides his hands back to cup her face and forces her to look him in the eyes as his fingers bury themselves in her damp hair. "Penny," he sighs her name and kisses her forehead before meeting her eyes again. "As I have already stated that I am falling in love with you, why would I wish you to be anything other than exactly what you are?" The sentiment makes her breath catch in her throat and her eyes fill with tears.

"I think that's the sweetest, most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me." The words are barely a whisper, and she sobs out the last word as he envelops her in another hug.

"I am going to have to adjust myself to maudlin emotional displays, aren't I?" Sheldon sighs above her, and although he's trying to look annoyed, there's a quirk of smile on his lips as he pulls her in closer and nuzzles the top of her head, breathing in deeply and then sighing contentedly against her hair.

"Probably," she nods against his chest, giggling slightly as he sighs his acceptance. "I'll make it worth your while," she whispers, and his hands tighten around her waist before sliding down to cup her naked buttocks again, making her laugh.

"Then we have an accord."

[Next time: Part III of Sunday night — further coitus. They're going to be _exhausted_, but they're making up for the three days apart, right?]


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: **Thank you so much for reviewing. I've been insanely busy, and being too busy to read fanfiction and watch _BBT_ reruns makes it really hard to get inspired for writing. Knowing people like this story helps so much. :)

Thanks, too, to people who expressed concern about the (supposed...hypothetical...promised?) cleansing of the site of sexually explicit material (the advertisers on this site would be _appalled_ by this chapter in particular). I'll start uploading them to a livejournal account, probably...just in case. I don't want to spam _Paradox_ with 18 chapters...but I'll definitely get it posted elsewhere.

[_Recap: Sheldon and Penny have __**just **__engaged in some serious, loud, lengthy, emotionally-charged coitus in Sheldon's bedroom, and are now going to walk over to Penny's for the night._]

**Sunday January 11th 10:41**

"We really, really shouldn't be here," Raj whispers quietly from his position on the floor, sitting at the coffee table. His eyes are focused straight ahead, and it looks like he hasn't moved in the last ninety minutes. Xbox controllers are sitting on the table, but no one is touching them, and the television and console are both off.

"At least they're done now," Howard offers. "I think."

"Well that's what you thought last time and all the times before that, isn't it?" Raj turns to glare at Howard, who is sitting on the end of the couch closest to the door, his eyes fixed in his lap. "We should have just left when we knew they weren't done after the first one."

"Trust me, Raj, buddy, I know what it sounds like when a woman is _really_ done, and..."

"Oh, shut up, Howard. You know nothing."

"Guys," Leonard breaks in, his back to the hallway in his white chair. "Do you think they'll come out here?" From the way Howard and Raj roll their eyes, it's clear that Leonard has asked this question a few times.

"Like I said before," Raj turns to Leonard, "we shouldn't be here." His eyes go wide as looks past Leonard, making eye contact with Sheldon's rumpled, sweaty figure, clothed in chinos and his green lantern t-shirt, his arms startlingly bare up to the short sleeves. His knuckles are visibly white from the tight grasp he keeps on his emergency bag as he stands on the step between the living and sleeping areas.

"Why _are_ you here?" Sheldon asks, irritated with his friends. Leonard and Howard both jump, startled and embarrassed, and neither one speaks for a long, awkward moment.

"We kept thinking you were done...and then...you weren't. Congratulations, by the way." Howard coughs nervously, and Sheldon can feel Penny behind him, her face buried against his back in embarrassment.

"It's my house, too," Leonard adds, turning around for the first time, but his eyes go wide at the vision of just how sweaty Sheldon is, and even more at the image of Penny cowering behind him. "We should have left," he amends. "We didn't think it would...go on...for...quite so long. Even if we had left, we would have come back while you were still..." He cuts himself off, looking to Howard and Raj for help. Raj shrugs helplessly.

"Congratulations," Howard adds again, giving Sheldon a strange nod. Sheldon feels nauseated by the knowledge that this experience has been shared with his friends.

Penny leans up to whisper in his ear, and he has to force himself to listen to what he's saying as he watches his friends take them in. It's difficult to pin a label on the emotional response he has to their stares, but it's somewhere between anger that they were listening and...pride?

"Penny wishes to know whether you were able to hear words exchanged between us."

"No," Leonard offers, clearly feeling bad about this. "We couldn't hear anything most of the time. It wasn't...it wasn't as bad as you're thinking. We would have left if we had heard that much." Sheldon smirks at the idea that most of what they heard must have been Penny's orgasms. Yes, it's pride.

Sheldon can feel Penny relax a little against him, and he reaches back to take her hand with the hand not clutching his bag.

"We are going to Penny's for the night. I'll be back in time for work tomorrow morning," Sheldon announces and then pulls Penny out the door, being careful to keep his body between her and the sight of his friends, as though somehow that will mitigate the embarrassment of this situation.

They let out a breath of relief when the door slams behind them, and he can't help pulling her into a hug as they reach her door. When they pull apart, she looks up at him, and he's certain for a moment that she's going to burst into tears. Instead, she starts laughing, her whole body shaking as she leans against his.

"You find this situation humorous?" Sheldon asks, concerned when Penny's laughter seems to turn slightly manic.

"It's been..." she pants against him, calming down, "an emotional few days." Sheldon nods at this, understanding this to be a general emotional catharsis. "Everyone just heard me having the best sex of my life," she mumbles against him, and he can't help the grin that crosses his face.

"The best?"

"Oh, shut up Sheldon," she smacks his chest lightly. "You made me cum until I couldn't move, and all your friends got to hear it, too."

"You believe I enjoy the fact that they heard?" He's actually shocked by this — his primary emotion is revulsion, not enjoyment. Except for that quiet sensation of pride...

"You don't enjoy it a little? The fact that Howard will have to stop hitting on me now because he _knows_ he can't do what you just did? The fact that they all know just like I do that you're a freaking sex God? The fact that when they look at me, what they'll remember is that you made me scream your name?" Her face flushes as she speaks; her green eyes seem to darken.

He can't hold back a smirk at her words. "I think you are enjoying those things, as well," he murmurs into her hair, sliding his hands down her body to grasp her hips in a possessive way, acting on a drive that is still new and largely unexplored. He's startled when she pulls away, sucking in a painful breath. "Penny?"

"I'm a little sore," she sighs against him, rubbing her hand lightly over her hip and the top of her butt.

"Turn around." He speaks the words like an order, fear that he's hurt her at the forefront of his mind, and when she tries to protest, he forces her to turn so that she faces the wall by her door, and he crouches behind her. He needs only lift her oversized t-shirt above her low-slung sweatpants to see the angry, red, finger-shaped marks that are fading to a light purple.

"I hurt you," he whispers, tracing his finger over one of the marks.

"I liked it," Penny sighs against the wall, placing her hands against it as he examines her backside. "I wanted it...it made it better." He's suddenly embarrassingly aroused by her words and their relative positions in the public space, by the tangible reminder of their sexual experience, and he can't help the need he has to lean forward and kiss one of the particularly dark marks.

They're startled by the sound of the door opening, and based on the color of Leonard's face, he gets a good look at the marks before Sheldon lowers Penny's shirt.

"I, uh, was waiting for you to realize that I locked Penny's door with our emergency key." He clears his throat nervously as Sheldon stands up, once again putting himself between Leonard and the sight of Penny as he nods at his roommate to open the door. Leonard's hand is shaking slightly, but he turns the lock quickly and pushes the door open. "Sorry," he whispers, turning around, and Sheldon is surprised when he feels Penny rise up on her toes to look over his shoulder.

"Thank you, Leonard." The words carry a meaning much deeper than Sheldon understands in the context of gratitude for Leonard's unlocking of the door, and Leonard still looks nervous, but somewhat more comfortable. "You're a really great friend, you know?" Sheldon watches his friend smile to himself, unable to look either of them in the eyes, before he mumbles a quiet 'good night,' and heads back into his apartment.

Sheldon turns to Penny, wondering what social interaction just occurred that he doesn't understand, and she smiles at him, grabbing his hand and his emergency bag from where he dropped it on the floor and pulling him into her apartment.

"Leonard came and got me tonight, you know." Penny looks up at him tilting her head to the side. "He told me you were sad and in love with me, and that if I didn't feel the same way I needed to leave you alone."

"And that makes him a good friend?" He's confused because it sounds like Leonard was telling Penny _not_ to come see him.

"It means he cares about you." She smiles up at him, but her eyes seem to be filled with tears. "I've been feeling irritated with him, you know? Because he sometimes acts like...like he has the right to be jealous, like I owe him something. But at the same time I didn't want to come between you guys. He let me know that he cares about you, no matter what. He's not just jealous, he's worried that I'll hurt you."

"Does that not give you reason to be angry with him? Does that not suggest that he believes you to be fickle?"

"Maybe." She shrugs as though Leonard's apparently low opinion of her doesn't matter. "But, sweetie, if he hadn't come to my door tonight, I wouldn't have come to see you. So, I'm grateful to him more than anything."

"Then so am I." Sheldon hugs her, keeping his hands at her waist, and buries his face in her hair, pulling her against him.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me," Penny pulls away from him, staring downwards to where his erection is causing obvious tenting in his pants. "How can you possibly be ready to go again?"

Sheldon's cheeks flush with embarrassment. "I apologize, Penny," he tells her softly, and she steps back into his embrace with a quiet:

"Oh, sweetie, I'm not mad. Just...surprised."

"I practically exposed you in a public area," he whispers into her hair. "Your undergarments are currently in my overnight bag. And I left marks on you."

"But Sheldon, I'm really sore. I can't..."

"I do not expect that," Sheldon cuts her off. "I assure you, Penny, that I am very skilled at self control and ignoring arousal. Generally I can keep myself from getting an erection. But...I am going to get in the shower with you," he whispers, pausing to slide her shirt over her head. "And the hot water is going to make those marks darker as your capillaries dilate." He kisses her again, his hands sliding inside her sweatpants to send them to the ground before wandering possessively over her body, enjoying the fact that he is allowed to touch her like this.

"Sheldon," she moans against his lips, sliding her hand down to rub against the bulge in his pants.

"I really do need a shower," he sighs into her ear, but she pulls away from him, shaking her head.

"Stay right there." It's a direct order, and he follows it, watching her naked form walk into the kitchen, where she turns on the water in the sink before walking to the bathroom, repeating her order over her shoulder as she disappears past the door into her bedroom.

So he waits, thinking about the way she was leaning against the wall with her hands and legs spread apart, thinking about the way he put his mouth on her, thinking about the way Leonard obviously saw the marks that he had left on her skin. It is a strangely possessive emotion, territorial and animalistic in a way that is unfamiliar, that fills him as he thinks these thoughts.

When she returns, her sweaty hair has been tamed in a ponytail, and she's carrying a blue washcloth, which she wets in the now steamy water pouring into the kitchen sink before shutting off the faucet. She walks towards him, and he watches, fascinated as she squeezes a little of the hot water over her breasts, letting the droplets slide along her skin.

"Penny," he mumbles her name as his erection grows impossibly harder, straining against the zipper of his pants.

She just grins at him and moves to stand directly in front of him, seeming to enjoy the way he looks at her, but when he reaches for her, she shakes her head.

"No touching." She grins at him wickedly as he lowers his hands, forming fists on either side of his thighs. "Good boy," she tells him, patting his chest with a smirk. He wants to be irritated with her, but then she drops to her knees in front of him and irritation is the last thing he could possibly feel.

Moving slowly, deliberately, Penny unzips his fly, but leaves the button at his waist secured as she reaches into his pants and briefs and pulls out his erection. Once it's exposed, she takes the rapidly cooling washcloth and wraps it around him, cleansing his penis before engulfing it in her mouth.

"Sweet Jesus," he mumbles, making Penny pull away from him and laugh.

"Did you just say 'Sweet Jesus'?" She giggles, looking up at him from her knees. He might be embarrassed at another time, to be caught spouting his mother's exclamations, but right now all he feels is the intense need for her mouth to be back on him. So he grasps her ponytail in his right hand and pulls her head back to where he wants it, pleased when her gasp does not sound angry, and she opens her mouth, taking him back inside.

"Good girl," he consciously mimics her language, and she moans around him, letting him guide her head in a gentle rhythm before he drops his hands back to his sides. She takes him particularly deep in her throat, and he barely holds back another 'Sweet Jesus' before she pulls her head back.

She looks up at him, holding his eyes for a long moment before grasping his right hand and bringing it to her ponytail. He understands, then, that she is attempting to help him realize the fantasy of control that he told her about.

He begins to guide her movements again, keeping them slow and gentle.

"I enjoy the fact that they all heard us." He tells her as he guides her head. "I enjoy the fact that what they heard was primarily the sound of you screaming. I enjoy the fact that they know that I made you scream." She moans, and he can't tell whether it is remembered pleasure or agreement. "I enjoy the fact that Leonard saw the bruises on your hips. I enjoy the fact that he knows I get to touch you there, and he never will." His grip on her hair grows tighter as he speeds up her movement slightly. "He decided you were his on the first day we met you," he tells her, "and I enjoy the fact that he knows you're _mine_."

Penny pulls herself away from him, leaning backwards on her knees, although his hand is still fisted around her ponytail. Something dangerous and familiar flashes in her eyes, reminding him how anger and lust look the same.

"I'm _yours_?" She asks, and he smirks down at her, giving her hair a sharp tug.

"All indications seem to point that way, yes." He nods, watching her purse her lips to fight a smile.

"You wanted me on that first day we met," she tells him, her mouth not six centimeters from his straining erection. "The way you smiled at me and belittled Leonard..."

"I was attracted to you." He nods his agreement to her accusation. "To put it in terms of popular colloquialism, I thought you were hot."

"Didn't it bother you that you both thought I was hot, but he got to lay some sort of claim on me?"

"He's supposed to be the socially adjusted one. The thought of me being able to be involved with someone like this never would have crossed his mind."

"What changed for you, then?"

"I never had a reason to try before," he answers, as though it's no big deal. No amount of praying or teasing or peer pressure had ever made him want to step outside his emotional comfort zone quite like the thought of making Penny happy.

She nods her head thoughtfully before leaning forward and taking the head of his erection in her mouth, sucking hard as she swirls her tongue enthusiastically.

"Sweet Jesus, Penny," he grunts, frustrated when she pulls away with a smile.

"Sheldon," she whispers his name. "If I'm going to be yours, you realize you're going to have to be mine."

"I have no qualms with that arrangement," he answers honestly, and she grins as she stands up. He drops his hand from her hair as both arms wrap around her waist, pulling her into a deep kiss. She slides her lips from his mouth down his neck, working her mouth just underneath the line of his t-shirt collar before she bites down hard, putting heavy suction on the mouthful of skin. He tries to pull away, but she keeps a tight grip on his shoulders and doesn't stop until she has left dark purple splotch ringed with indentations from her teeth.

"There," she grins as she steps back.

He gives her his most irritated face, but the irritation isn't really there. While he's always found the theoretical practice of hickeys to be distasteful, in the context of the possible bruises he's gifted her with tonight, it seems only equitable.

"Oh, you like it," she tells him, rubbing his cheek until the irritated face dissolves into a soft smile. "It'll be mostly covered up by your shirt," she promises before kissing him, rubbing her naked body against his clothed one.

"Why did you leave my clothes on?" He mumbles into her mouth, wishing to feel her bare skin against his.

"It's hot," she informs him, although he can hardly understand why a raised temperature would translate to her leaving his clothing on. At his cocked head she smiles and shakes her head. "It turns me on to be naked while you're dressed. I guess I'm sort of an exhibitionist." It would explain many of her wardrobe choices, he supposes.

"You were aroused by what happened in the hallway, too, when I lifted up your shirt." It comes out as a statement rather than a question as he intends, but she grins at him and nods.

"Yes. That was hot."

"And you are aroused now from engaging in fellatio while you are nude and I am clothed."

She giggles, shaking her head. "How do you make big words sound so sexy?"

"It's a gift," he answers drolly, rolling his eyes and earning a giggle.

She rubs herself against him and he runs his hands down her body, dipping his fingers between her legs. He finds her wet, her inner thighs painted with the silky slickness of her arousal, and his right hand immediately grasps her ponytail again, pulling her into a rough kiss.

"Penny," he groans her name. "I want..." He can't quite express what he wants, isn't comfortable with the language to describe what he wants — something faster and harder and different from what they have done until now.

"What do you want, Sheldon?" She asks, sliding her hands up and down his chest. He believes that she already understands exactly what he wants and is merely prompting him to use more explicit language, so he tries.

"I want to...fuck...you," he groans against her mouth, barely faltering on the dirty word. Her response — a grin and a shiver that he can feel move down her spine — is gratifying, as it means that she is likely pleased by his attempt to use more erotic language.

"How?" The word is a puff of air against his mouth before she kisses him again. "Tell me how, exactly how." This is an invitation for blunt sexual language intended to arouse her further, and it's not an area where Sheldon feels he will necessarily excel. But he does his best to alter his language and syntax to match those that he has read elsewhere.

"I want to bend you over the bathroom counter," he tells her as the hand not wrapped up in her ponytail drifts down her body, cupping her right buttock. "I want to fuck you from behind."

"You want to act out your fantasy?"

He nods even though the question seems primarily rhetorical.

"You're going to pull my hair while you fuck me," Penny whispers in his ear, and he moans his agreement.

Too suddenly, the warmth of her body is gone from his, but she grasps his hand and pulls him through her bedroom into her bathroom.

"Now." She tells him, bending herself over the small sink, as her bathroom lacks the counter space of his. He pauses, reaching down to pull off his shirt, but her voice stops him. "Drop your pants, otherwise stay dressed." He does as she's asked, releasing the button on his pants and carefully maneuvering himself out of them and his briefs, tricky thanks to the turgid state of his penis, before shuffling the few remaining inches towards her.

"Penny," he whispers her name as one hand slides along her naked back.

"Now, Sheldon," she moans, rising high on her toes and tilting her hips upward in a way that speaks of desperation.

"I'm afraid I'll hurt you," he tells her quietly, letting his gentle fingers trace the darkening bruises on her hips.

"Fine," she grunts. "Just do it _now_." The urgency in her voice is particularly arousing, and the feeling of _possession_ comes flooding back to him as he looks at her bruises, as he thinks about the way she was kneeling in front of him mere moments ago. And that quickly, he's grasping her hips, ignoring her gasp of pain, and pushing inside of her slowly. He knows she must still be sore, even if she's more aroused now than she was when they walked into her apartment, and he sinks into her incrementally, trying to give her time to adjust.

It's Penny that pushes back against him, forcing him in faster, it's Penny that wiggles her hips so that he has to dig his fingers into her flesh hard to keep the angle, and it's Penny that grunts:

"Fuck me."

So he does. His right hand stays on her hip, holding her steady, as his left hand grasps her ponytail, pulling her hair so that her back bows under him and her neck stretches back towards him. When he looks up, he meets her eyes in the mirror and clenches his jaw at the smoldering stare reflected back at him. He is aware as he looks at them in the mirror that he's not going to be able to put off his own orgasm very long, so getting her there first becomes of prime importance.

"Penny," he grunts her name, speeding up his hips and watching the play of emotion on her face to gauge his angle. His grin past his clenched jaw is near-feral as her lips fall open, her eyes squinting shut as she recites the mantra that has preceded her best orgasms. "Keep your eyes open," he orders, meeting her gaze once again.

"God, Sheldon," she pants as he moves against her, repeating the phrase and getting louder as he thrusts harder.

He's unable to hold back any longer, and as he feels his own orgasm begin, he tugs hard on Penny's hair and leans down to sink his teeth into her shoulder, just like he had in his fantasy. This is apparently the last stimulation she needs, and she calls out beneath him, shuddering and panting.

"Sweet Jesus," he moans into her neck, unable to move from where he has collapsed on top of her, still bent over the too-small sink. He manages to grasp the sides of the sink and push himself up on his arms to avoid crushing her and begins to kiss her neck sweetly. "You are exceptionally beautiful when you are nude and drenched in sweat," he mumbles in her ear.

She giggles in response, throwing her head back as she straightens up from the counter, forcing him into a standing position.

"Let's get in the shower!" She looks remarkably energetic given how completely exhausted he is, and he nods, watching as she turns on the hot water and then yanks his shirt over his head.

"How do you have so much energy?" He asks the question as she's pulling off his shoes, and she giggles.

"Sometimes sex just...gives me energy." She grins up at him from his feet before standing up and pushing his pants the rest of the way down his legs. He dutifully steps out.

She leads him into the shower and then leaves the bathroom, calling behind her shoulder that she'll be right back. When she returns, she's holding the toiletry pouch from his emergency bag and a clean washcloth, and he smiles as she pulls out a small bar of soap and a travel bottle of his favorite shampoo and then steps in the shower.

"Turn around," she tells him quietly, and he does, bending slightly so that she can massage shampoo into his hair, and letting her lather the bar of soap onto the washcloth. She washes him gently and thoroughly before allowing him back under the water. He hasn't been in the shower with another person since well before he reached sexual maturity, and is a little awed at how intimate the experience feels, even compared with intimacy of sexual intercourse.

It is surprisingly pleasant to have someone else wash him, and relaxes against her touch, enjoying the way she massages his back as he rinses off. It's not a sexual moment, but it holds much love, adoration, and Sheldon sighs his enjoyment.

"Do you want to go lie down, and I'll join you in a little bit?" She asks him as she finishes cleaning him, and he shakes his head.

"No, I want to stay here," he tells her, watching as she reaches for a bottle of shampoo. It is labeled 'Spring,' the one he told her was his favorite. "You have no idea how many times I have imagined watching you shower in the past two weeks," he whispers.

As he watches, she shampoos her hair, arching her back and raising her arms so that her breasts are tilted gently upwards. She's putting on a show for him, he realizes, as she rinses the shampoo from her hair and reaches for the conditioner, arching again as he watches.

With the conditioner in her hair, she reaches for a matching bottle of body wash, squirting some of the green tinted liquid on a poofy sphere of white mesh and squeezing it to create suds. He watches as she begins to wash herself, stopping every once in a while to smile at him and squeeze the poof so suds trail down her breasts.

Sheldon takes the poof from her as she begins to reach for her back and turns her away from him, rubbing small circles against her skin and breathing in the pleasant scent of the soap. Handing her the poof, he gathers suds in his hands and moves them between her legs, smiling at the slight gasp she lets out. He watches her rinse herself, the vision of wet, naked Penny far

better than the image his brain had concocted.

"Let's watch a _Star Trek_ before bed," Penny whispers to him as she shuts off the water and grabs the two clean towels she had set out for them. He just smiles and kisses her softly.

[Next time: Penny and Sheldon eat Thai food, have more coitus, and start to talk about the actual parameters of their relationship. Also, more reactions from the guys on the Shenny, and a glimpse into why I dislike Leonard even when he's a decent human being to Sheldon.]


End file.
